1. FEATURE: THE OLYMPICS MEETS THE WAR ON DRUGS
   Competition at the Olympic Games was overshadowed by a dramatic escalation of the war on drugs by Italian police, who raided Austria's biathlon and cross-country skiing teams late the night before they were set to compete.
2. FEATURE: MARYLAND DELEGATE INTRODUCES BILL TO EASE STATE AID FOR STUDENTS AFFECTED BY FEDERAL DRUG PROVISION
   A bill in the Maryland legislature would help students who lost federal financial aid for college because of drug convictions to obtain financial assistance through state programs.
3. FEATURE: FROM THE EAST BAY, THE CANNABIS CULTURE SPEAKS
   Along with cannabis dispensaries, patient support services providers and a gift shop, Oakland's 10-year old "Oaksterdam" enterprise now has a newspaper too.
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   It's two for Texas, two for Tennessee in this week's rogues' gallery, but also cops gone bad from Pennsylvania and Maryland, South Carolina and Florida.
5. AYAHUASCA: SUPREME COURT OKAYS USE OF PSYCHEDELIC TEA IN CHURCH RITUALS
   A unanimous US Supreme Court ruled Monday that the US branch of a Brazilian church may use a psychedelic tea containing a controlled substance as part of its religious rituals.
6. PROHIBITION: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WAVERS
   The Wall Street Journal's editorial page has an impregnable reputation as a bastion of conservative thought and a long history of support for drug prohibition. But something is going on at the nation's second most widely read newspaper.
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: ILLINOIS BILL MOVING, PASSES SENATE COMMITTEE
   A bill that would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana squeaked by a state Senate subcommittee with a one-vote margin last week and is now heading for a Senate floor vote.
8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEW MEXICO BILL DIES IN HOUSE AS TIME RUNS OUT
   For the second year in a row, an effort to push a medical marijuana bill through the New Mexico legislature has won passage in the state Senate only to stall in the House.
9. SOUTHEAST ASIA: DRUG WAR SUCCESS MEANS POVERTY FOR LAOTIAN FARMERS
   A program to eradicate opium farming in Laos has been so "successful" that farmers there are now in dire need of economic assistance.
10. CANADA: BRITISH COLUMBIA'S NEW DEMOCRATS SAY LEGALIZE IT
    The leading opposition party in the western Canadian province has officially called for legalization of marijuana.
11. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: FLORIDA APPEALS COURT RESTRICTS WARRANTLESS DRUG DOG SEARCHES
    The Florida 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that police must obtain a warrant before drug-sniffing dogs are allowed to search private property.
12. CELEBRITY MOUTH: BRUCE WILLIS DECLARES WAR ON COCAINE
    In what is presumably a bid to gin up publicity for his new movie, 16 Blocks, movie tough-guy Bruce Willis is talking tough about cocaine.
13. WEB SCAN
    Cannabinoids for Cancer Treatment, Perjury in Police Misconduct
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
15. JOB OPPORTUNITY: COMMUNITY LIAISON, PREVENTIONWORKS!, WASHINGTON, DC
    The capital city's syringe exchange/harm reduction program is hiring a Community Liaison.
16. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #423 -- 2/16/06

1. FEATURE: NEW MEXICO MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL LIKELY TO DIE WITHOUT A FLOOR VOTE BARRING LAST-DITCH EFFORT
   The New Mexico legislature's 2006 short session ends at noon Mountain Time today, and barring a last-second, long-shot maneuver, the medical marijuana bill supported by the state's governor will go with it.
2. FEATURE: DRUG POSSESSION FOR PERSONAL USE IS NOT A CRIME, ARGENTINE COURT RULES
   In a decision that could go before the nation's Supreme Court, a judge in Argentina's Buenos Aires province has found a penalizing drug possession unconstitutional.
3. FEATURE: FOES FUME AND FLEE AS DRUG REFORM REACHES OUT TO CONSERVATIVES
   For the second year in a row, drug reformers took the message to a seemingly unlikely audience -- the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   It's a bumper crop of bad cops this week, with strange goings on in two Arkansas towns, cops up to no good across the South and in Massachusetts and Washington state, a prosecutor in trouble in San Francisco, and a pair of federal air marshals who were apparently marshaling white powder safely to its destination. And we give a shout-out to a web site that you'll like if you like this feature.
5. FEDERAL DRUG BUDGET: DEMOCRATIC SENATORS URGE RESTORING FUNDS FOR DRUG TASK FORCES
   In an attempt at using tough-on-crime rhetoric to win partisan political advantage, a number of Democratic senators are criticizing the Bush administration for seeking further cuts in drug war spending programs beloved by law enforcement.
6. MARIJUANA: DECRIMINALIZATION MEASURE MOVING IN MASSACHUSETTS
   In the first of many steps, a bill that would impose fines -- not jail time -- for marijuana possession in Massachusetts has been approved by a legislative committee.
7. MARIJUANA: OAKLAND-STYLE "MEASURE Z" CAMPAIGNS SLATED FOR MORE CALIFORNIA CITIES
   People involved in Oakland's groundbreaking 2004 initiative -- which made private, adult marijuana transactions the city's lowest law enforcement priority -- are set to expand the effort to other California cities.
8. ECSTASY: AFTER THE FACT, WISCONSIN LEGISLATOR SEEKS TO STIFFEN PENALTIES
   The Ecstasy curve appears to be past its peak, according to standard measures. But that hasn't stopped a Wisconsin legislator from taking action now.
9. EUROPE: BELGIAN SOCIALISTS CALL FOR REGULATED MARIJUANA SALES
   A junior partner in Belgium's governing coalition is calling for the country's three-year-old marijuana decriminalization experiment to be extended to outright legalization.
10. WEB SCAN
    Sentencing Project on the War on Marijuana, Marsha Rosenbaum on Drug Hysteria for Alternet
11. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
12. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #422 -- 2/10/06

1. EDITORIAL: I WAS ALMOST ON TV LAST WEEK
   DRCNet executive director David Borden was supposed to appear on a national TV show last week, but got bumped at the very last second. Today he tells the story for this audience.
2. FEATURE: FEDERAL DRUG BUDGET CONTINUES MODEST DOWNWARD TREND, BUT STRATEGY PROMISES SAME OLD SAME OLD
   With tax cuts and the war on terror competing for dollars, even the drug war is not exempt from the budget-cutter's ax.
3. FEATURE: STATES, COLLEGES BLOCK FINANCIAL AID TO STUDENTS WITH DRUG CONVICTIONS EVEN WHEN THEY DON'T HAVE TO, DRCNET-SPONSORED STUDY FINDS
   Thousands of college students with drug convictions could be receiving financial aid from their states even though federal law bars them from obtaining federal assistance. But in most places they are falling through administrative cracks and getting denied, a study released this week has found.
4. FEATURE: WITH AUSTRALIA IN THE GRIP OF REEFER MADNESS, NEW SOUTH WALES MOVES TO SEVERELY PUNISH THE DREADED "HYDRO"
   Opposition is building to a proposed measure in the Australian state of New South Wales to dramatically increase penalties for marijuana grown indoors using hydroponics.
5. EUROPE: ITALY TAKES A GIANT STEP BACKWARD
   The Italian parliament Monday voted final approval for a new drug law that reimposes sanctions for marijuana users and erases the distinction between "soft" and "hard" drugs. Drug quantities triggering prison time are yet to be determined, but it's not looking good.
6. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   An Oklahoma prosecutor tries to swipe some evidence, a Milwaukee cop is in trouble for a little side cocaine trafficking, and a Tennessee detective is involved in a confused incident regarding a crashed pickup truck and some missing drug.
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA COUNTY DROPS FEDERAL LAWSUIT, WILL SEEK TO OVERTURN COMPASSIONATE USE ACT IN STATE COURT
   San Diego County has quietly dropped its federal lawsuit seeking to overturn California's medical marijuana law, but has re-filed it in state court.
8. HARM REDUCTION: PEDIATRICIANS BACK NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
   Pediatricians should advocate for needle exchange programs to reduce the rate of HIV infection among young drug users, the American Academy of Pediatrics said a revised policy statement earlier this month.
9. CHRONIC PAIN: FLORIDA PAIN PATIENT APPEALS DRUG TRAFFICKING SENTENCE AMIDST MEDIA GLARE
   Last year, Florida pain patient Richard Paey was sentenced to a mandatory minimum 25-year prison sentence after authorities watched him roll his wheel chair from pharmacy to pharmacy seeking the massive amounts of narcotic pain relievers needed to make his life bearable. Tuesday, Paey was back in court to appeal his convictions and sentence in Tampa.
10. IN MEMORIAM: AL LEWIS DEAD AT 82 -- BEST KNOWN AS "GRANDPA MUNSTER," ACTOR WAS ALSO ACTIVIST AND DRUG LAW REFORMER
    Al Lewis, best known for his role as "Grandpa Munster" in "The Munsters," died last Friday at the age of 82. Lewis was a long-time activist who campaigned against New York State's draconian Rockefeller drug laws, among other causes.
11. WEB SCAN
    New LEAP Video, Reason on Bush's Drug Warriors, Afghan Farmers in London, Conservatives Attacked Over Soros Link, Humanists Resolution
12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
13. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #421 -- 2/3/06

1. FEATURE: AFGHAN OPIUM CONUNDRUM -- FOUR YEARS ON, THE WEST SEARCHES FOR ANSWERS
   Four years after the United States invaded and overthrew the Taliban, neither the West nor the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai has figured out what to do about the country's burgeoning opium economy.
2. FEATURE: SSDP SUES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT DISPUTE
   The organization Students for Sensible Drug Policy announced last week it has filed a lawsuit over a hefty fee the Department of Education wants to release state-by-state data on the number of students affected by the Higher Education Act drug provision.
3. FEATURE: DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE ISSUES FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DRUG POLICY VOTER GUIDE
   A new Congressional voter guide identifies "heroes," "villains" and "champions" of drug policy reform.
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week, systemic corruption in the Topeka drug squad continues to roil local law enforcement, and a civilian sheriff's office employee in Oakland has more on her mind that filing reports.
5. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: STEVE KUBBY JAILED AND SUFFERING IN CALIFORNIA
   His four-year odyssey as a medical marijuana refugee over since last week, Steve Kubby has asked a court for house arrest or to be allowed to use medicinal marijuana while jailed. No correctional facility in the state allows prisoners access to this particular medicine despite state law making it legal.
6. HEA REFORM: CONGRESS PASSES PARTIAL REFORM TO LAW BARRING FINANCIAL AID TO STUDENTS WITH DRUG CONVICTIONS
   With the passage of a controversial budget bill, Congress has scaled back the Higher Education Act drug provision to apply only to those in school at the time of their offenses.
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEW MEXICO BILL CLEARS SENATE, HEADS FOR HOUSE AS CLOCK TICKS
   The New Mexico medical marijuana bill blessed repeatedly by Gov. Bill Richardson passed the Senate overwhelmingly and now heads to the House, where legislators have a week to act.
8. MARIJUANA: ALASKA GOVERNOR'S BID TO RECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA BACKFIRES AS HOUSE REJECTS COMBINED "METHIJUANA" BILL
   Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski and his allies hoped that tying their bill to recriminalize marijuana possession to a methamphetamine bill would help them steamroll the legislation into law, but it didn't work out that way this week.
9. EUROPE: ITALY POISED FOR GIANT STEP BACKWARD ON DRUG POLICY
   Possession of personal use quantities of drugs has been decriminalized in Italy for more than a decade, but a tough new law being pushed through parliament could change that.
10. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICO'S DRUG WAR ERUPTS BLOODILY IN ACAPULCO
    In an unintended consequence of Mexican drug law enforcement, the sunny tourist destination Acapulco has found itself wracked by dramatic and murderous violence as rival cartels -- perhaps aided by corrupted police allies -- fight for control of the trade.
11. WEB SCAN
    Richard Paey on Sixty Minutes, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
13. JOB OPPORTUNITIES
    Drug Policy Alliance, Full-Time Legislative Assistant and Part-Time Office Manager
14. JOB OPPORTUNITY
    Publications Coordinator for Students for Sensible Drug Policy and DanceSafe
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

1. FEATURE: SAN DIEGO POLITICOS AND ACTIVISTS FACE OFF OVER MEDICAL MARIJUANA
   San Diego County's supervisors have never liked California's medical marijuana law. But the fight they started last week is one they may soon regret.
2. FEATURE: STUDY CLAIMING METHAMPHETAMINE IS OVERRUNNING HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOMS FAILS TO WITHSTAND SCRUTINY
   For the second time in less than a year, a lobbying group for county officials has managed to get the press to bite on methamphetamine studies that purport to show the popular stimulant is wreaking havoc across the land. But the group's claims don't stand up to scrutiny.
3. FEATURE: MEDICAL MARIJUANA REFUGEE STEVE KUBBY EXPELLED FROM CANADA, FACES LIFE THREATENING JAIL SENTENCE IN CALIFORNIA
   Medical marijuana refugee Steve Kubby flew from Vancouver to San Francisco Thursday evening, expelled by Canada at the bitter end of a four-year effort to remain in his adopted home and avoid serving a jail sentence he says could lead to his death.
4. FEATURE: ON THE OCCASION OF OUR 420TH ISSUE, WE LOOK AT 4:20
   The secret code for "time to get high" has been around since the late 1970s. But despite prohibition -- or perhaps because of it -- 4:20 is much less secret than it once was.
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week, a Connecticut cop and an Arizona prosecutor let their bad habits get on top of them. Though we have a general policy of not going after simple possession charges -- everyone has their foibles -- this cop is charged also with distribution. And the prosecutor, well, it's his job to prosecute drug offenders, so we'll make an exception.
6. EUROPE: IRELAND TO START "CAUTIONING" MARIJUANA USERS -- NO, WAIT A MINUTE, WE CHANGED OUR MIND
   Ireland's Garda Siochana police were set to begin issuing "cautions" or warnings for marijuana smokers and small-time possessors instead of arresting them beginning next month. But at the last minute they did a u-turn.
7. EUROPE: BRITISH TO REVIEW DRUG CLASSIFICATION SCHEME
   Just days after deciding not to re-reclassify cannabis as a more dangerous drug, Britain's Home Secretary announced a government-backed review of the country's entire drug classification system. Early speculation points to both winners and losers.
8. SOUTH ASIA: INDIAN FARMERS, MAOISTS TEAM UP IN OPIUM TRADE
   Drought, drug prohibition, and simmering lawlessness in the northeastern Indian state of Jharkhand are combining in an all too familiar pattern as hard-pressed farmers team up with guerrilla fighters in what looks to be a burgeoning opium trade.
9. AUSTRALIA: GREEN PARTY TAKES A STEP BACK ON DRUG POLICY
   In the latest iteration of its drug policy platform, the Australian Green Party has retreated from its call to explore regulated distribution of marijuana and Ecstasy.
10. ELECTORAL POLITICS: NATIONALLY KNOWN DRUG REFORMER SEEKS GREEN PARTY GUBERNATORIAL NOMINATION IN CONNECTICUT
    Efficacy founder Cliff Thornton has publicly announced he is seeking the Green Party nomination for governor of Connecticut, kicking it off with a well-attended press conference in Hartford Wednesday.
11. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEW MEXICO BILL WINS SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL
    A medical marijuana bill promoted by Gov. Bill Richardson in the state's off-year short legislative session was unanimously approved by the first of three Senate committees to vote on it.
12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
13. JOB OPPORTUNITIES, MPP IN DC AND NEVADA
    The Marijuana Policy Project is hiring for positions in Las Vegas and Washington, DC.
14. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #419 -- 1/20/06

1. FEATURE: ALASKA BILL TO RECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA FAST-TRACKED, PASSES SENATE
   Alaska Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski and his allies are pulling out all the stops to pass a bill that would recriminalize marijuana possession in the state.
2. FEATURE: WITH CONSERVATIVES POISED TO TAKE POWER, CANADIAN DRUG REFORM PONDERS AN UNFRIENDLY FUTURE
   With Canada's Conservative Party expected to take power in Monday's election and leader Steven Harper taking the tough on drugs and crime line, observers of drug policy are wondering how bad things might get.
3. FEATURE: SWISS MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION TO GO TO VOTERS... UNLESS PARLIAMENT ACTS FIRST
   A year and a half after conservative opposition in Switzerland's lower chamber blocked a measure that would have legalized marijuana, proponents have gathered enough signatures to force a nationwide referendum on the issue.
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   While we tend to focus on individual cases of corruption, this week the rot has spread and the stench takes on institutional form, with departments on both coasts having big problems and a big city jail where it seems like everyone was in on the illicit action.
5. SUPREME COURT RULING: ADMINISTRATION CANNOT USE FEDERAL DRUG LAWS TO BLOCK OREGON'S ASSISTED SUICIDE LAW -- ATTEMPTS INCREASED PAIN LEVELS AMONG DYING
   In a decision handed down Tuesday, the US Supreme Court upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law, ruling the feds can't use the drug laws to punish doctors who prescribed drugs to help people kill themselves in states that permit the practice. Pain treatment took a hit in Oregon when they tried eight years ago.
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: SAN DIEGO TERM LIMITS INITIATIVE FILED IN RESPONSE TO SUPERVISORS' ATTACKS ON STATE MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW
   The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to challenge California's medical marijuana law in federal court, and has resisted a state mandate to create a medical marijuana patient registry. Now, members may be about to pay the ultimate political price for ignoring the will of the voters.
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR PUTS COMPASSIONATE USE ACT ON LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
   In a surprise move, Gov. Bill Richardson has included a pending medical marijuana bill on his agenda for the state's 30-day legislative session begun this week.
8. MOTHERING: UTAH APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS CHILD ENDANGERMENT CHARGE IN MARIJUANA BREAST-FEEDING CASE, BUT UPHOLDS LAW ITSELF
   In a pair of rulings, the Utah Court of Appeals upheld a state law making "exposure to" illicit drugs evidence of child endangerment, but drew the line at charging a mother under the law for breast-feeding her baby while admitting to smoking marijuana twice in a three-week period.
9. MARIJUANA: "WEEDS" ACTRESS MARY LOUISE PARKER WINS GOLDEN GLOBE, SAYS "LEGALIZE IT"
   Actress Mary Louise Parker, who plays suburban pot-dealing mom Nancy Botwin in the Showtime TV series "Weeds," beat out a quartet of Desperate Housewives to win best comedy actress at Monday night's nationally-televised Golden Globe awards, and she used the occasion to call on the US government to legalize marijuana.
10. EUROPE: BRITAIN WILL NOT RECLASSIFY CANNABIS AS A MORE HARMFUL DRUG -- ADVISORY COUNCIL CALLS RISK OF MENTAL ILLNESS "VERY SMALL"
    British Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced Thursday that marijuana will remain in the less-punished class of illegal drugs.
11. LATIN AMERICA: COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT FORCED TO PROBE PARAMILITARY INFLUENCE-BUYING
    In the wake of widely publicized allegations that drug-running rightist paramilitary groups are using their cocaine profits to buy their way into Colombia's political system, President Alvaro Uribe has ordered an investigation into the campaign finances of two of his allies in the Senate.
12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
13. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #418 -- 1/13/06

1. FEATURE: FEDERAL METH PRECURSOR STING TARGETING SOUTH ASIAN CONVENIENCE STORES DRAWS PROTESTS, ACLU INTERVENTION
   For several dozen hard-working South Asian immigrants and their families in northwest Georgia, the American dream has turned into a nightmare.
2. FEATURE: CANNABIS CAUSING SCHIZOPHRENIA IN BRITISH MARIJUANA POLICY
   In an act of political expediency against a background of tabloid hysteria over links between marijuana and mental illness, the Blair government has proclaimed that it may well reclassify marijuana back to Class B. Or maybe not.
3. FEATURE: ALITO HEARINGS YIELD INCONCLUSIVE BUT MOSTLY BAD FORECASTS FOR DRUG WAR ISSUES
   Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is not the libertarian kind of conservative jurist, and his record on issues relating to drug policy tilts decidedly in the direction of government power. The reach of the Interstate Commerce Clause, which underpins federal drug prohibition, is potentially an important exception. But the nominee provided too little information for anyone to do much besides guess.
4. FEATURE: IN THE WAKE OF BOOKER, SOME SMALL RELIEF FOR A SMALL FRACTION OF FEDERAL CRACK COCAINE OFFENDERS
   Last year's Supreme Court decision in the Booker and Fan Fan cases threatened to draw retaliation from Congressional hardliners in love with harsh sentencing. But a new study has found that for crack cocaine offenses, at least, most people are still getting very harsh sentences.
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Another pair of drug-dealing prison guards, a drug-dealing small-town cop, a drug-dealing big city cop, and a really big time, big city drug-dealing cop make the news this week.
6. SENTENCING: FEDERAL APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS MANDATORY 55-YEAR SENTENCE FOR MAN WHO SOLD MARIJUANA WHILE ARMED
   Arguing that Congress intended to severely punish crimes involving guns and drugs, a three-judge panel from the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver found no problem with a 55 year sentence the trial judge had issued under protest.
7. SENTENCING: NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL TO END MANDATORY DRIVER LICENSE SUSPENSIONS FOR DRUG OFFENDERS
   New Jersey's 2004-2005 legislative session ended with a bill to allow judges to waive a previously mandatory six-month drivers license suspension for any drug offense passing. But bills to reduce the size of "drug free school zones" and legalize needle exchange failed to make it through.
8. MARIJUANA: BILL TO RECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA IN ALASKA INTRODUCED AND MOVING
   Attempts by Gov. Frank Murkowski and Alaska’s law enforcement establishment to recriminalize marijuana have been slapped down multiple times, but still they come back to try again.
9. EUROPE: LEADING BRITISH DATE RAPE DRUG IS ALCOHOL, STUDY FINDS
   Alcohol, not illicit drugs, poses the greatest date rape risk, according to a study whose results were published this week in the New Scientist.
10. EUROPE: ALBANIAN HEMP FARMERS FREED AS JUDGE RULES IT'S NOT MARIJUANA
    For the second time in five years, Albanian police have arrested farmers growing industrial hemp, and for the second time in five years, an Albanian judge has told the cops to knock it off.
11. LATIN AMERICA: US SEEKING TALKS WITH BOLIVIA'S MORALES ON COCA, TRADE
    A campaign pledge by Bolivian president-elect and coca grower Evo Morales to decriminalize the leaf's cultivation could place him directly at odds with US policy in the country. For once US diplomats in Bolivia are walking softly.
12. WEB SCAN
    NORML Animation, Budapest Drug Policy Dialogue
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #417 -- 1/6/06

1. EDITORIAL: ARGUMENTS BEST SET TO REST
   The best arguments against medical marijuana were aired in Rhode Island this week -- and failed.
2. FEATURE: RHODE ISLAND OVERRIDES GOVERNOR'S VETO TO BECOME 11TH STATE OKAYING MEDICAL MARIJUANA
   Gov. Donald Carcieri thought a veto would stop medical marijuana in Rhode Island. But first the Senate and then the House turned his veto back, and medical marijuana is the law of the state.
3. FEATURE: MEDICAL MARIJUANA REFUGEE RUNNING OUT OF TIME, OPTIONS
   One of America's best known medical marijuana refugees may be coming home next week -- against his will and to face what could effectively be a death sentence.
4. FEATURE: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET-CUTTING EXTENDS EVEN TO DRUG WAR SACRED COWS
   For decades, it has been almost anything goes when it comes to fulfilling budget requests for federal drug war funding. But several drug warrior favorites took big hits last month, and the impact is likely to be significant.
5. FEATURE: REFORMERS FOCUS ON COLORADO, NEVADA TO FREE THE WEED IN 2006
   In no state have voters or legislators legalized marijuana for recreational use, but if drug reformers have their way, this could be the year.
6. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week, the long-running Dallas "sheetrock scandal" grows even sleazier, a San Francisco cop is accused of being a serial horndog, and in Honolulu, a cop faces prison for selling meth and a prison guard may find himself on the other side of the bars for similar reasons.
7. METHAMPHETAMINE: TENNESSEE CREATES METH OFFENDER REGISTRY
   With the new year, meth offenders join sex offenders as social pariahs deserving of a permanent electronic registry in Tennessee.
8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: SATIVEX WINS FDA APPROVAL FOR TRIALS IN US
   GW Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the sublingual, cannabis-based spray medication Sativex, announced Wednesday that it won US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to proceed with Phase III clinical trials of the drug's efficacy in patients suffering from pain from advanced cancers.
9. EUROPE: KETAMINE NOW ILLEGAL IN ENGLAND
   Legal in Britain up until last week, "Special K," as the club drug Ketamine is popularly known, now carries penalties of up to two years in prison for possession or 14 years for sales.
10. LATIN AMERICA: DEA TO EXPAND INTO GUYANA
    The US Drug Enforcement Administration is preparing to set up shop in Guyana, the agency's first venture in the small, non-Spanish-speaking countries of South America's north coast.
11. WORLD-WIDE: THIS YEAR'S GLOBAL MARIJUANA MARCH IS COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU MAY 6
    Organizers of the May marijuana marches around the planet announced this week that they had at least 150 cities signed up for the annual event.
12. NEW DRCNET BOOK OFFER: "TULIA: RACE, COCAINE, AND CORRUPTION IN A SMALL TEXAS TOWN"
    DRCNet's latest member premium is a book by the Texas Observer's Nate Blakeslee that paints an in-depth picture of the drug war's most notorious scandal and the rural and political landscape in which it unfolded.
13. WEB SCAN
    New England Journal of Medicine on the DEA vs. Oregon's Right to Die Law
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

1. NEW DRCNET BOOK OFFER: "TULIA: RACE, COCAINE, AND CORRUPTION IN A SMALL TEXAS TOWN"
   DRCNet's latest member premium is a book by the Texas Observer's Nate Blakeslee that paints an in-depth picture of the drug war's most notorious scandal and the rural and political landscape in which it unfolded.
2. FEATURE: FEDS TARGET SAN FRANCISCO MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY -- DEA AGENTS FACE ANGRY PROTESTORS
   Dozens of patients and activists faced off with DEA agents raiding a highly respected medical marijuana cooperative in San Francisco Tuesday.
3. FEATURE: CONGRESS SCALES BACK HEA DRUG PROVISION -- WILL NOW APPLY ONLY TO STUDENTS BUSTED WHILE IN COLLEGE
   In a rare scaling back of a punitive federal drug law, Congress has decided to restrict the range of a provision of the Higher Education Act that takes financial aid for college away from students who have drug convictions. Advocates are pleased but unsatisfied.
4. FEATURE: BOLIVIANS ELECT EVO MORALES PRESIDENT -- INDIGENOUS LEFTIST COCA-GROWER LEADER WINS SWEEPING VICTORY
   In a major blow to official US international drug war policy, an ardent critic of coca eradication has been elected president of Bolivia by the widest electoral margin in decades.
5. APPEAL: DAVID BORDEN MAKES A CASE TO SUPPORT DRCNET FOR 2006
   2005 has been quite a year at DRCNet. In 2006 DRCNet will be able to advance the cause in a broader way and at a greater level than ever before -- but only with your help.
6. METHAMPHETAMINE: PATRIOT ACT EXTENSION DEAL PUTS SOUDER-SENSENBRENNER METH BILL ON HOLD
   Two drug warriors promoting a methamphetamine bill that would put Sudafed behind the counter and enact harsh new penalties tried to get their way by attaching it to the Patriot Act. But they found that Congressional maneuverings can cut both ways.
7. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   It won't be a Merry Christmas for a South Carolina sheriff's deputy who made a small fortune protecting a meth dealer or for a Louisiana police chief who sold crack on the side.
8. PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: ALABAMA TO JOIN GROWING LIST OF STATES TRACKING PRESCRIPTIONS
   Over 20 states track patients' prescriptions for frequently abused drugs. But the databases come at a time when patients are widely under-treated for chronic pain and doctors are increasingly leery of prescribing large doses of popular pain relievers for fear of prosecution.
9. LATIN AMERICA: PERUVIAN COCA LEADER NANCY OBREGON ARRESTED
   Peru's most prominent coca leader was arrested December 16 in the Upper Huallaga River valley town of Tingo Maria.
10. HEROIN: BRITISH STUDY FINDS A DIFFERENT SORT OF USER
    The stereotypical heroin addict may be just that, according to a study of continuing heroin users who either escaped dependency altogether or managed to live controlled, productive lives while dependent on heroin.
11. EUROPE: HUNGARIAN PARAMEDICS AGREE TO KEEP POLICE AWAY FROM DRUG EMERGENCIES
    Following frequent complaints that drug users feared to call for help in emergencies due to fear of arrest, the Hungarian National Ambulance Service has agreed to instruct its paramedics to longer call the police when dealing with overdoses and other drug emergencies.
12. CARIBBEAN: NEW BERMUDA DRUG CHIEF HINTS AT MARIJUANA LAW REVIEW
    Two weeks after being appointed Bermuda's National Drug Control Minister, veteran drug-fighting police leader Wayne Perinchief fielded a reporter's question about drug decriminalization by saying he would review the island nation's marijuana laws.
13. LATIN AMERICA: DYING BRAZILIAN WOMAN FREED AFTER INTERNATIONAL APPEAL
    A 79-year-old Brazilian great-grandmother imprisoned despite terminal cancer for 19 rocks of crack cocaine found in a house she shared with her adult son has been released pending appeal.
14. WEB SCAN
    Reason/Cato 9th Circuit Raich Brief, CounterPunch on Bryan Epis, Drug Truth Network
15. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
16. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #415 -- 12/16/05

1. APPEAL: DAVID BORDEN MAKES A CASE TO SUPPORT DRCNET FOR 2006
   2005 has been quite a year at DRCNet. In 2006 DRCNet will be able to advance the cause in a broader way and at a greater level than ever before -- but only with your help.
2. FEATURE: DEA, LOCAL POLICE JOIN FORCES TO RAID 13 SAN DIEGO MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES
   Eyewitness accounts describe drawn guns, handcuffing of staff and patients, and marijuana and medical record seizures in a coordinated anti-medical marijuana sweep on Monday, but arrests were few.
3. FEATURE: JURORS ACQUIT CALIFORNIA NARC WHO KILLED RUDY CARDENAS IN MISTAKEN CHASE
   A San Jose jury Tuesday acquitted a California state narcotics officer of manslaughter in the February 2003 shooting death of Rudy Cardenas.
4. FEATURE: COCA LEADER EVO MORALES POISED TO WIN BOLIVIA PRESIDENTIAL VOTE SUNDAY
   An indigenous member of Bolivia's parliament who grows coca and is opposed by the US government is likely to take the reins of the national government. Drug warriors are not happy.
5. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: "BUD, INC.: INSIDE CANADA'S MARIJUANA INDUSTRY"
   Vancouver Sun justice columnist Ian Mulgrew has been covering the marijuana beat in British Columbia for a decade, and his book provides a fascinating look at Canada's largest cash crop, its culture and its politics, and where it could be headed.
6. ALERT: PROTEST DEA'S DECEMBER OUTRAGE
   Earlier this week, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) took the cruel and reckless step of raiding 13 medical marijuana dispensaries that patients in the San Diego area rely on for needed relief for serious medical conditions. Please help patients by protesting this outrage to Congress.
7. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week, a crooked Border Patrol agent gets sent to prison, so does a crooked border town sheriff, three more soldiers plead guilty in a massive Arizona sting, and a Chicago cop gets caught playing weed dealer.
8. SENTENCING: REPORT ON 2004 NEW YORK DRUG LAW REFORM FINDS LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE, MUCH MORE TO DO
   A report by the NYC Legal Aid Society found limited impact from last year's Rockefeller drug law reforms and called on the legislature to finish what it had started.
9. INDUSTRIAL HEMP: SOUTH DAKOTA INDIANS GO TO FEDERAL COURT IN EFFORT TO GROW CROP
   In 2000 and 2001, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation resident Alex White Plume and his family sowed hemp crops, only to have them destroyed by heavily armed federal raiders. This week he and his family went to federal appeals court to press their claim that hemp is not illegal.
10. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: SHERIFF CAN'T REVOKE PISTOL PERMIT JUST BECAUSE OF MEDICAL USE, OREGON COURT RULES
    Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon has pulled at least four concealed pistol permits because of their holders' medical marijuana use. Now a judge has told him he can't.
11. MARIJUANA: GOVERNOR TO TRY AGAIN TO END LEGAL MARIJUANA IN ALASKA
    Alaska's drug warrior governor has failed multiple times to defeat a state Supreme Court finding that possession of small quantities of marijuana is protected under the right to privacy. With a new year coming, Murkowski is back at it.
12. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: BILLS ACTIVE IN SEVERAL STATES
    Medical marijuana continues to be a hot issue in statehouses, with pending legislation continuing to progress in at least three states -- Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
13. LATIN AMERICA: GAO REPORT CHALLENGES US STATISTICS ON COCAINE SEIZURES
    A new government report raises doubts about administration's claims of progress in reducing the flow of cocaine to the United States.
14. WEB SCAN
    Seattle Times, Village Voice, San Diego Raids and LEAP in Princeton
15. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
16. JOB OPENINGS: LISTINGS AT THE MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT
    The Marijuana Policy Project currently has permanent job openings at its offices in Washington, DC, Montpelier, Vermont and Las Vegas, Nevada, and temporary positions in locations around the country.
17. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #414 -- 12/9/05

1. UPDATE AND APPEAL: DRCNET IN 2006
   2005 has been quite a year at DRCNet. In 2006 DRCNet will be able to advance the cause in a broader way and at a greater level than ever before -- but only with your help.
2. FEATURE: VANCOUVER KEEPS LEADING THE WAY ON DRUG REFORM, DESPITE BUMPS IN THE ROAD
   The "Pot Block" is quieter these days since Marc Emery was indicted, and hard drug users a few blocks over are facing a police crackdown against public injecting. But Vancouver continues to lead Canada toward a post-prohibition future.
3. FEATURE: SEATTLE CONFERENCE ON DRUG WAR EXIT STRATEGIES GETS DOWN TO NUTS AND BOLTS
   The second and final day of Seattle's "Exit Strategy for the War on Drugs" conference saw dozens of reformers, academics and others confront a series of questions about how two drugs -- marijuana and methamphetamine -- should be regulated in a post-prohibition era.
4. FEATURE: WASHINGTON LEGISLATURE TO CONSIDER BILL TO EXAMINE ALTERNATIVES TO PROHIBITION
   A coalition of professional and civic groups in Seattle are resuming their campaign to pass potentially paradigm-breaking legislation.
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week, we turn our attention from the mundane corruption of dope-dealing prison guards and dope-stealing bad cops to the systemic corruption created by the reliance on informants in drug cases.
6. MARIJUANA: DENVER MAN TO CHALLENGE POT ARREST AFTER LEGALIZATION ORDINANCE IN EFFECT
   Since Denver voters passed I-100 last month, officials police have ignored the will of the voters to prosecute at least 12 adults for simple marijuana possession. Now one of them is fighting back -- in court.
7. CHRONIC PAIN: SOUTH CAROLINA PAIN DOCTORS LOSE APPEAL, BUT GET NEW SENTENCING HEARINGS
   A trio of physicians lauded by patient advocates but accused of drug distribution and money laundering by the government have lost their appeal. But a recent Supreme Court ruling has given them a new chance at sentencing.
8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: JUDGES GROWLS AT MORE POSSIBLE PROSECUTION MISCONDUCT IN BRYAN EPIS RESENTENCING HEARINGS
   Federal prosecutors handed defense attorneys evidence of official misconduct as the resentencing neared of a celebrated medical marijuana provider who had served two years of a 10-year sentence.
9. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: SAN DIEGO COUNTY TO SUE TO OVERTURN CALIFORNIA LAW
   The San Diego County board of supervisors voted Tuesday to try to overturn California's Compassionate Use Act, which allows seriously ill people to use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.
10. LATIN AMERICA: PRISON SENTENCE FOR DYING WOMAN, 79, SPARKS INTERNATIONAL APPEAL
    A 79-year-old Brazilian woman with terminal cancer who weighs 88 pounds has been sentenced to four years in prison, sparking an international campaign to set her free.
11. AUSTRALIA: AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT GOES AFTER RAVE ECSTASY TESTING GROUP
    A Melbourne-based harm reduction organization that has been testing ecstasy tablets at raves is getting unwelcome attention from its state and federal governments.
12. EUROPE: CZECH LOWER HOUSE PASSES DRUG REFORM MEASURE, INCLUDING DECRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA POSSESSION AND PERSONAL GROWS
    The Czech Republic's lower house last week approved a penal code revision that will decriminalize simple marijuana possession and allow for growing for personal use. It is likely to become law.
13. CANADA: WITH ELECTIONS LOOMING, CONSERVATIVES TALK TOUGH ON DRUGS
    Canadian Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper is hoping talking tough on drugs will win his party votes in next month's national elections.
14. EUROPE: DUTCH POLITICAL PARTIES CALL FOR REGULATED PILOT PROGRAM TO SUPPLY MARIJUANA TO COFFEE SHOPS
    Dutch parliamentarians have reached an agreement on the details of a pilot program for a regulated supply of marijuana for the nation's famous "coffee shops" -- and warned the government it must act this week or they'll take further action.
15. WEB SCAN
    After I-75 in Seattle, re-launched web site from Bolivia's coca country
16. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #413 -- 12/2/05

1. UPDATE AND APPEAL: DRCNET IN 2006
   2005 has been quite a year at DRCNet. In 2006 DRCNet will be able to advance the cause in a broader way and at a greater level than ever before -- but only with your help.
2. EDITORIAL: NOW YOU CAN ASK ME WHY
   More than 75 readers responded to our request for pro-legalization sound bites. Here's a sampling of them.
3. OFFER AND APPEAL: THE GREAT DRUG WAR, BY ARNOLD TREBACH
   DRCNet's latest premium offer is a re-released classic detailing the outrages of the 1980s drug war -- outrages which still continue today.
4. FEATURE: PLAINTIFFS WANTED -- ACLU TO FILE LAWSUIT CHALLENGING FEDERAL BAN ON FINANCIAL AID FOR COLLEGE STUDENT DRUG OFFENDERS
   The ACLU is preparing to file a class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a federal law barring students with drug convictions from receiving financial aid. Plaintiffs are needed.
5. FEATURE: CONFERENCE TO PLOT DRUG WAR EXIT STRATEGY GETS UNDERWAY IN SEATTLE
   In an historic conference that got underway yesterday in downtown Seattle, drug reform notables met to begin to plot strategies to move from drug prohibition to a regulatory drug control regime.
6. FEATURE: LOS ANGELES EVENT RAISES FUNDS FOR HEA VICTIMS
   While the ACLU Santa Cruz office was preparing a national class action lawsuit, a scholarship program that is finding many of their plaintiffs held a celebrity fundraiser several hundred miles to the south in LA.
7. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: "TULIA: RACE, COCAINE, AND CORRUPTION IN A SMALL TEXAS TOWN," BY NATE BLAKESLEE (2005, PUBLIC AFFAIRS PRESS, 450 PP., $26.95 HB)
   The new book by the reporter who did groundbreaking work exposing the Tulia scandal is a page turner and a must read.
8. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   America's prisons must be a real captive market for wannabe drug dealers -- this week yet another prison guard goes down. And then there's the case of the bad cop turned bad kiddie van driver.
9. LAW ENFORCEMENT: CALIFORNIA DRUG TASK FORCE MUST HOLD PUBLIC MEETINGS, COURT RULES
   Open government activists have won a court ruling forcing LA County's Impact drug task force to allow public attendance at its board meetings. The repercussions could be statewide.
10. ASIA: SINGAPORE EXECUTES AUSTRALIAN FOR DRUG SMUGGLING
    Despite global appeals for clemency, Singapore this morning executed 25-year-old Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van just before dawn.
11. MARIJUANA: MARIJUANA CROP WORTH $1.5 BILLION IN ONE CALIFORNIA COUNTY ALONE, PAPER ESTIMATES
    Northern California's Mendocino County has been known for marijuana growing for at least 30 years. But the economic scale of the industry may be even greater than was thought.
12. SILLINESS: TWO FLORIDA GRADE SCHOOL GIRLS ARRESTED FOR FAKE MARIJUANA PRANK
    Police in Flagler County last week arrested two 10-year-old girls for bringing a bag of parsley to school and pretending it was marijuana.
13. EUROPE: ENGLAND TO DRUG TEST ARRESTED BURGLARS AND MUGGERS
    Under new powers granted police in Britain's fight against street crime, people arrested for "acquisitive crime" now face mandatory drug tests upon arrest.
14. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICO ALLOWS STATE, LOCAL COPS TO JOIN DRUG WAR
    Mexico's war on drugs has traditionally been the domain of federal police and, increasingly, the Mexican armed forces. But as of Monday, state and local police will have the authority to enforce federal drug laws aimed at traffickers too.
15. WEB SCAN
    New "Change The Climate" Animation
16. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
17. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

1. FEATURE: SAN FRANCISCO REGULATES MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES
   The city where California's medical marijuana movement was born has now regulated dispensaries, in a move that some lament but others see as providing further legitimacy.
2. EUROPE: DUTCH PARLIAMENT PONDERS EXPERIMENT IN "LEGAL" COFFEESHOP SUPPLY
   A majority in the Dutch lower house of parliament has proposed taking an experimental first step toward legalization of the supply side in the marijuana trade.
3. THE PROHIBITION DEBATE: FORMER NORTH CAROLINA SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE SPARKS CONTROVERSY WITH CALL FOR LOOK AT DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION
   A former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice has suggested drug decriminalization to reduce street crime and the prison population. But what he's describing sounds more like legalization.
4. PROHIBITION AND VIOLENCE: CALIFORNIA DISPENSARY/GROWER ROBBERIES CLAIM FIRST FATALITY
   California's medical marijuana grows and dispensaries have long been the target of thieves and armed robbers, but now they suffered their first murder, Mendocino County activist and philanthropist Les Crane.
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week we have more guilty pleas in the ongoing Arizona smuggling sting that wrapped up a bunch of cops, prison guards, and soldiers, another cash-hungry prison guard, and a Miami cop accused of selling information to drug traffickers.
6. LAW ENFORCEMENT: AUSTIN POLICE CHIEF FIRES COP WHO KILLED DANIEL ROCHA
   The Austin, Texas, police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Daniel Rocha during a minor marijuana possession bust has been fired, but another officer only suspended for 28 days.
7. SENTENCING: RHODE ISLAND FEDERAL JUDGES NOT WAITING FOR CONGRESS TO FIX CRACK-POWDER COCAINE SENTENCING DISPARITIES
   Though federal judges for the most part have not deviated significantly from sentencing guidelines since a Supreme Court rulings last year made them advisory, judges in Rhode Island have used the cases to reduce the infamous 100:1 disparity in crack and powder cocaine sentencing.
8. SENTENCING: INDIANA JUDGE COMPARES METH COOK TO A TERRORIST, GIVES HIM 30 YEARS
   The first man convicted of running a home meth lab in Indiana's Delaware County has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by a judge who compared him to a terrorist.
9. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: ARKANSAS, WISCONSIN LEGISLATURES HOLD HEARINGS
   In two states where efforts to legalize the use of marijuana for medical reasons have yet to bear fruit, legislators recently held hearings on the topic.
10. LATIN AMERICA: COLOMBIA TO SUSPEND AERIAL FUMIGATION ALONG BORDER WITH ECUADOR
    The government of Colombia has announced it would suspend the aerial spraying of herbicides designed to kill coca and opium crops along its southern border at the request of neighboring Ecuador.
11. WEB SCAN:
    EMCDDA, Cato on Mexico, Jews and Medical Marijuana
12. JOB OPPORTUNITY:
    Operations and Technology Coordinator, Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, DC Area
13. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #411 -- 11/18/05

1. EDITORIAL: TELL ME WHY
   The case against drug prohibition is complex and not very conducive to "sound bite" argumentation. But we need to have the sound bites if we are going to effectively get our message out to the public.
2. FEATURE: ENHANCED MANDATORY MINIMUMS BLOCKED IN NEW METHAMPHETAMINE BILL
   Reformers won a partial victory in the removal of enhanced mandatory minimum sentences from a methamphetamine bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee.
3. FEATURE: THE 2005 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY REFORM CONFERENCE IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
   "People who love drugs" and "people who hate drugs" were among the many contrasting allies at the record-well attended 2005 International Drug Policy Reform Conference last week.
4. FEATURE: DEPORTED FOR A TRACE -- FARID'S TALE
   A European activist planning to attend last week's International Conference on Drug Policy Reform in California was instead detained overnight and deported by the authorities -- for 0.0001 grams of marijuana he didn't know he had.
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week we've got cops stealing drug dogs, cops cooking speed, soldiers running drugs, and soldiers who thought they were running drugs.
6. SPORTS: UNDER CONGRESSIONAL PRESSURE, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, UNION AGREE ON DRUG TESTING POLICY
   Yielding to intense pressure from Congress in the wake of steroid use scandals, Major League Baseball agreed Tuesday to a tough new drug testing policy.
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: TWO MICHIGAN TOWNS PASS ORDINANCES -- OFFICIALS BALK
   Initiatives to allow medical marijuana use in two Michigan towns passed by comfortable margins in elections held November 8. Town officials, however, are promising a fight.
8. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: SUPREME COURT HEARS SEARCH CASE WHERE WIFE CONSENTED BUT HUSBAND REFUSED
   After Georgia police searched Scott Fitz Randolph's home for cocaine in 2001 -- over his objections but with his wife's consent -- the state's Supreme Court found one occupant's refusal of a warrantless home search was enough to make it illegal. Now the US Supreme Court will decide the issue for the land.
9. LATIN AMERICA: GUATEMALA'S TOP NARC ARRESTED IN US
   The chief of Guatemala's anti-drug police, his deputy, and another senior official were indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, Wednesday on cocaine distribution conspiracy charges.
10. EUROPE: SATIVEX COMING TO ENGLAND, SPAIN
    A marijuana-based spray medicine approved in Canada will soon be available on a limited basis to patients in England and Spain as well, primarily cancer and MS sufferers.
11. ASIA: KOREAN ACTRESS WHO CHALLENGED MARIJUANA LAW SENTENCED TO PRISON
    The Korean Supreme Court Tuesday upheld an eight-month prison sentence for actress Kim Bu-sun, whose arrest for smoking marijuana in July 2004 led to national debate about the country's pot laws.
12. WEB SCAN
    In These Times, Alternet on Sembler and Straight, New SSDP Blog
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. ANNOUNCEMENT: SENLIS COUNCIL SEEKING RESEARCH PROPOSALS ON AFGHANI OPIUM LICENSING SCHEMES
    The European think tank that floated the recent opium licensing proposal in Afghanistan is now seeking proposals from researchers for phase two of the project.
15. JOB OPPORTUNITIES: WEBMASTERS FOR MPP IN DC, CRCM IN NEVADA
    The Marijuana Policy Project is hiring web site administrators for its office in Washington, DC, and for the Campaign to Regulate and Control Marijuana in Nevada.
16. INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY: CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY FOUNDATION
    The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation is seeking (paid) interns for research and writing assistance on the impact of drug prohibition on the economy.
17. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #410 -- 11/4/05

1. FEATURE: DENVER SAYS LEGALIZE POT -- OFFICIALS VOW TO THWART WILL OF VOTERS
   After a tough and surprisingly bitter campaign, voters in Denver Tuesday approved a ballot measure legalizing the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by persons 21 or older. But more bitterness may be ahead, as city and state officials have vowed to ignore the vote.
2. FEATURE: SUPREME COURT HEARS AYAHUASCA RELIGIOUS USE CASE -- JUSTICES SKEPTICAL OF GOVERNMENT ARGUMENTS
   The US Supreme Court Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case in which the federal government seeks to bar a small religious group from using its holy sacrament, a hallucinogenic tea known as ayahuasca.
3. FEATURE: NEW MEXICO'S COMPREHENSIVE METHAMPHETAMINE RECOMMENDATIONS APPROACH "FOUR PILLARS" SCOPE
   A New Mexico working group on methamphetamine has released a set of comprehensive recommendations for dealing with the drug that explicitly recognizes the role of harm reduction as part of a broader strategy.
4. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: "THE GREAT DRUG WAR: AND RATIONAL PROPOSALS TO TURN THE TIDE," BY ARNOLD TREBACH
   A classic by the founder of the modern drug policy reform movement detailing the outrages of the 1980s drug war has been re-released. The bad news is that it is still relevant.
5. EVENT: CELEBRITY PERRY FUND RECEPTION IN LOS ANGELES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7 -- YOU'RE INVITED
   Join DRCNet and friends at a celebrity fundraiser for the John W. Perry Fund, our scholarship program helping students who have lost government financial aid for college because of drug convictions.
6. MARIJUANA: IN LATEST GALLUP POLL, 36 PERCENT SAY LEGALIZE IT -- HALF IN THE WEST ARE READY
   Support for the legalization of marijuana has reached record levels.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COP STORIES
   A slow week on the corrupt cop front, with only yet another crooked prison guard making the roster -- you can help by sending in stories.
8. SENTENCING: NUMBER IN JAIL OR PRISON, ON PROBATION OR PAROLE NEARS 7 MILLION, 1.8 MILLION OF THEM DRUG OFFENDERS
   The US Bureau of Justice Statistics reports another all-time record for the American incarceration juggernaut.
9. SUPREME COURT: NOMINEE HAS MIXED BUT MOSTLY BAD RECORD ON DRUG-RELATED ISSUES
   Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito is a former drug-fighting US Attorney whose support for increasing police powers has often exceeded that of other conservative jurists.
10. LATIN AMERICA: BOLIVIAN ELECTIONS RESCHEDULED
    The December 4 election that could put a left-leaning coca grower leader in the Bolivian presidency will now take place December
11. AUSTRALIA: AMID WAVE OF REEFER MADNESS, GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR TOUGHER MARIJUANA LAWS
    The Australian government of Prime Minister John Howard, egged on by the country's tabloid press, is pressuring state governments to roll back marijuana decriminalization laws adopted in the last dozen years.
12. WEB SCAN
    Hartford City Drug Conference, Norm Stamper
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. JOB OPPORTUNITY: EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT
    The Marijuana Policy Project is seeking an Executive Assistant to manage MPP's main office in Washington, DC, and to assist the executive director. The application deadline is November 11, and the post could be filled sooner than that, so act fast if you think you want the job.
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

1. FEATURE: DRUG WAR PRISONER COUNT OVER HALF A MILLION, US PRISON POPULATION AT ALL-TIME HIGH
   Numbers released by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics find that people sentenced for drug crimes accounted for 21 percent of state prisoners and 55 percent of federal prisoners in 2004.
2. FEATURE: LOOKING AT POSSIBLE US LIFE SENTENCE, CANADA'S "PRINCE OF POT" RISES TO THE CHALLENGE
   At first glance, it appears that nothing has changed on Vancouver's famous "pot block." But the Marc Emery seed company, which subsidized the block's famous activism, is no longer in business, and the US is trying to extradite Emery himself to face a possible life sentence.
3. FEATURE: MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUPPORTERS RALLY IN DC, SIX OTHER CITIES, IN EFFORT TO FORCE HHS TO ACT ON RESCHEDULING PETITIONS
   Hundreds of medical marijuana supporters rallied in seven cities to pressure the Dept. of Health & Human Services to act on its years-old petition to reschedule marijuana as a medicine.
4. EVENT: CELEBRITY PERRY FUND RECEPTION IN LOS ANGELES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7 -- YOU'RE INVITED
   Join DRCNet and friends at a celebrity fundraiser for the John W. Perry Fund, our scholarship program helping students who have lost government financial aid for college because of drug convictions.
5. ASIA: SINGAPORE TO EXECUTE AUSTRALIAN FOR DRUG SMUGGLING ANY DAY NOW -- AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ISSUES URGENT APPEAL
   Amnesty International is campaigning to save the life of a 25-year-old Australian citizen facing hanging by Singapore for drug smuggling. But it may be too late.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   A South Carolina head narc goes down over shady dealings, and an entire Kansas drug squad is tainted in a prosecutor's report.
7. CREATIVE WRITING: MINNEAPOLIS FED SPONSORS ESSAY CONTEST ON DRUG ECONOMICS
   A usually staid essay contest for high school juniors and seniors has selected the provocative topic of illegal drug economics. Legalization is getting discussed.
8. COURTS: ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT SAYS GET A WARRANT!
   The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld a lower court decision throwing out the evidence in a methamphetamine case because police failed to obtain a warrant before searching the house.
9. KATRINA LEGISLATION: BILL INTRODUCED TO EXEMPT HURRICANE VICTIMS FROM LAWS BARRING FEDERAL ASSISTANCE FOR PAST DRUG LAW VIOLATORS
   Some of the victims of Hurricane Katrina are past violators of drug laws, ineligible in many cases for federal welfare, food stamps, public housing and education benefits. A bill introduced this week would exempt them from such penalties for three years.
10. WEB SCAN
    NORML Report, Change The Climate Animation, USA Today v. Souder, Stamper on O'Reilly Factor
11. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
12. JOB OPPORTUNITIES: STUDENTS FOR SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT
    Two exciting job opportunities in the movement in Washington, DC.
13. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #408 -- 10/21/05

1. FEATURE: MARIJUANA ARRESTS AT ALL-TIME HIGH AGAIN
   America's war on drugs continued full steam ahead last year, and nearly 800,000 marijuana law violators were among those paying the price.
2. FEATURE: TORONTO MOVES TOWARD FOUR PILLARS-STYLE DRUG POLICY
   After an 18-month review, Toronto's Drug Strategy Advisory Committee has called for changes including decriminalization of marijuana possession and consideration of a safe injection site for hard drug users.
3. FEATURE: MOMA EXHIBIT MUTES DANCESAFE'S DRUG HARM REDUCTION MESSAGE
   Leaders of a rave culture harm reduction organization were eagerly awaiting seeing their work on exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art last week. But when they got there the result was disappointing.
4. EVENT: CELEBRITY PERRY FUND RECEPTION IN LOS ANGELES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7 -- YOU'RE INVITED
   Join DRCNet and friends at a celebrity fundraiser for the John W. Perry Fund, our scholarship program helping students who have lost government financial aid for college because of drug convictions.
5. QUOTE OF THE WEEK: FORMER SEATTLE POLICE CHIEF NORM STAMPER ON LEGALIZATION OF ALL DRUGS
   No beating around the bush for this top cop...
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   The corrupt cop beat is lonely this week -- only one case worth mentioning, and in that one a Pennsylvania detective apparently got away with the goods.
7. NEWSBRIEF: TRIAL FOR CALIFORNIA NARC WHO KILLED RUDY CARDENAS GETS UNDERWAY
   A California State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement agent went on trial this week for the February 2004 killing of Rodolfo "Rudy" Cardenas.
8. POST-HURRICANE: NEW ORLEANS NARCS ITCHING TO MAKE MORE BUSTS
   In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the New Orleans Police Department's Vice and Narcotics Squad is eager to get back to busting nonviolent drug offenders.
9. POST-HURRICANE: CONGRESSIONAL CONSERVATIVES EYE CUTS IN ANTI-DRUG SPENDING TO PAY FOR KATRINA RELIEF -- REFORMERS CLAMOR FOR MORE
   Certain anti-drug programs are apparently on the chopping block as Congress seeks ways to pay for Gulf Coast rebuilding amidst a sea of red ink.
10. ASIA: CALM WORDS FROM AN INDIAN DRUG EXPERT
    Stop the presses! Legal drugs are a "greater menace" to public health than the illegal ones, an addiction expert in India says.
11. CANADA: BRITISH COLUMBIA HEALTH OFFICIALS CALL FOR DISCUSSION ON REGULATION OF ILLICIT DRUGS
    In a position paper released during an international symposium on drug policy this week, the Health Officers Council of British Columbia called the war on drugs an "abysmal failure."
12. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: BOTH NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR CANDIDATES SUPPORT IT
    It's always a question whether candidates will hold to their views stated during campaigns once elected. But if these two mean it, medical marijuana will have a friend in the governor's office in New Jersey next year.
13. WEB SCAN
    Stamper, Hartford, Emery, Prosecutorial Zealotry, LEAP
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #407 -- 10/14/05

1. EDITORIAL: WHY I'M STILL AN OPTIMIST
   Opinion polls will reflect a change in attitudes about drug prohibition within the next six years.
2. FEATURE: FORMER LAWMAN'S COAST TO COAST HORSE RIDE TO LEGALIZE DRUGS CONCLUDES AT STATUE OF LIBERTY
   With cowboy boots and jeans and a big, shiny belt buckle, Howard Wooldridge looks the part of the stereotypical Texas lawman. But the message Howard and horse Misty took to the highways and byways of America for seven months this year was hardly typical.
3. FEATURE: LORETTA NALL ENTERS ALABAMA GOVERNOR'S RACE
   After a 2002 encounter with the law turned Alabama housewife Loretta Nall into an activist, now she is championing the drug reform message as the Marijuana Party candidate in the 2006 race for governor.
4. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: "BUSTED: DRUG WAR SURVIVAL SKILLS FROM THE BUY TO THE BUST TO BEGGING FOR MERCY"
   DC defense attorney Chris Fabricant book is a veritable bible for drug users or people who know and care about drug users.
5. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   A sticky-fingered Pennsylvania police chief pilfers pot, a trio of Texas cops gets caught running interference for traffickers, and yet another jail guard sells dope to inmates.
6. CENTRAL ASIA: AFGHAN PRESIDENT PUBLICLY LINKS DRUG TRAFFICKING, TERRORISM
   President Hamid Karzai has warned that the country could fall back into the hands of terrorists if the Afghan opium crop is not stamped out. But with the crop providing livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of families and accounting for 40-60 percent of Afghanistan's GDP, eradication is what might help the terrorists win hearts and minds most of all.
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CANADIANS DEPORT ACTIVIST/PATIENT STEVE TUCK, NOW IMPRISONED WITHOUT MEDICAL CARE BY US AUTHORITIES
   Medical marijuana activist and patient Steve Tuck was dragged from his bed by Canadian immigration officials last Friday and handed over to US authorities at the border -- catheter still attached.
8. MARIJUANA: POT AN ISSUE IN CINCINNATI MAYORAL RACE
   A mayoral candidate's proposal to increase marijuana penalties didn't go over well, but the issues continues to percolate in Cincinnati pre-election politics.
9. EMPLOYMENT: FBI MAY REVISE HIRING RULES FOR FORMER MARIJUANA AND OTHER DRUG USERS
   Some FBI officials are seeking to loosen limits on past drug use by qualified job applicants. It goes to the Director's desk soon for a decision.
10. MIDDLE EAST: US INVASION, CONTINUING INSURGENCY LEAD TO INCREASING DRUG USE IN IRAQ
    Drug use in Iraq is rising steadily as war-weary Iraqis turn to hard drugs to take the edge off a bleak and terrifying existence.
11. EUROPE: STUDY CALLS INTO QUESTION FRANCE'S OBSESSION WITH "DRUGGED DRIVING"
    Findings reported by the Paris newspaper Liberation suggest that a "zero-tolerance" drugged driving law passed in the midst of a heated anti-marijuana campaign may be mistargeted.
12. EUROPE: MOST MARIJUANA IN UNITED KINGDOM NOW HOME-GROWN BY SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS USERS
    Imports from traditional suppliers of marijuana to the UK have plummeted in the face of competition by users wanting to disassociate themselves from criminality and violence linked to the black market drug trade.
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #406 -- 10/7/05

1. FEATURE: PROHIBITION AND TERROR -- THE AFGHAN CONNECTION
   Among the forces working to sustain extremist organizations like Al Qaeda is one that policymakers don't like to talk about in direct terms -- drug prohibition.
2. FEATURE: AFGHAN OPIUM FARMERS CAUGHT IN THE SQUEEZE
   With opium the unquestioned mainstay of Afghanistan's economy but the government eradicating, rural Afghans are getting caught in the squeeze. Elders in a village north of Jalalabad told the story in an interview given to DRCNet this week.
3. FEATURE: AFGHAN OPIUM CONUNDRUM -- WHAT TO DO WITH WARLORDS, POLITICIANS INVOLVED IN THE DRUG TRADE?
   With the government of President Hamid Karzai attempting to solidify nascent national government institutions, Afghans inside the government and out ponder how to address the problem of members of the government and other powers who are involved in the illicit opium trade.
4. FEATURE: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, GIVE AND TAKE -- AFGHANS TAKE ON THE SENLIS COUNCIL AND ITS LICENSING PROPOSAL
   Curiosity and intrigue mingled with worry, skepticism and even hostility last week as a European think tank's proposal to license Afghan opium growing for medical uses got discussed in Kabul.
5. EDITORIAL: THE CONSEQUENCES OF PROHIBITION (WAS "WHAT IS IT ABOUT OPIUM?")
   With Phil's Afghanistan adventure soon to come to a close, we reprint this October 2001 editorial by David Borden that closely relates to some of the topics Phil discusses in the four special Afghanistan reports published in this issue.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Drug War Chronicle may have taken a week off in covering the corrupt cops beat, but that doesn't mean the corrupt cops did. This week we have yet another prison guard gone bad and another crack-slinging policeman.
7. LATIN AMERICA: BOLIVIAN COCA LEADER AND PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER EVO MORALES VISITS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AS ELECTIONS THROWN INTO DOUBT
   With coca grower leader Evo Morales favored to win Bolivia's presidency, legislators in the European Parliament have stepped up to ensure that he is not robbed of victory by pre-election legal shenanigans.
8. LATIN AMERICA: US FUMIGATION PLANE SHOT DOWN IN COLOMBIA
   Leftist rebels in northeast Colombia shot a drug fumigation plane owned by the US State Dept. out of the sky September 30, killing the pilot, according to wire service reports.
9. WEB SCAN
   New CJPF Newsletter, Meth Conference Audio & Powerpoint Online, Meth Commentary from Cascade
10. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
11. PARTNERING: DRCNET SEEKING FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION COLLABORATORS
    DRCNet is interested in dialoguing with individuals who have strong academic skills and relevant backgrounds about the possibility of seeking funding together for work that will advance the issue.
12. CONTEST: NEW DRCNET T-SHIRT DESIGNS
    DRCNet is currently soliciting designs for new t-shirts to be made available on our web site and worn by people nationwide who want an end to prohibition and the war on drugs.
13. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

1. COMMENTARY: DIRECT FROM KABUL -- DRCNET ON THE SCENE IN AFGHANISTAN THIS WEEK AND NEXT
   Intrepid DRCNet editor Phil Smith is on the scene reporting on the drug war and reform efforts in Afghanistan -- David Borden comments.
2. ON THE SCENE I: EUROPEAN THINK TANK CALLS FOR LICENSED OPIUM CULTIVATION AT AFGHANISTAN CONFERENCE -- RESPONSE VARIED
   Amidst a burst of publicity and news coverage ranging from Kabul TV to the New York Times, thinkers and officials from around the world mixed with Afghans and representatives of neighboring countries at a three-day conference in Afghanistan this week.
3. ON THE SCENE II: AFGHANISTAN'S NEIGHBORS LOOK WITH INTEREST AT LICENSING PROPOSAL
   Most Afghan opium ends up not in the west but in neighboring countries like Iran and Russia. Representatives of those countries attended this week's conference in Kabul and promised to bring the idea of buying the nation's opium supply for the medical market back to their bosses.
4. ON THE SCENE III: BEYOND TREATMENT AND PREVENTION -- HARM REDUCTION IN AFGHANISTAN
   Afghanistan has its share or more of drug addiction. But the nation of 25 million people has a mere 100 treatment beds, and a lone needle exchange program sitting on a dusty side street in Kabul relies mostly on volunteers to help stem a looming epidemic of HIV and Hepatitis in the city's injecting population.
5. DENIED: MASSACHUSETTS JURY SLAPS DOWN OVERREACHING DISTRICT ATTORNEY IN "SCHOOL ZONE" BUST
   A western Massachusetts jury refused to convict 18-year old Kyle Sawin after prosecutors used enhanced "school zone" penalties to try to hit him with two years mandatory minimum in prison.
6. METHAMPHETAMINE: HOUSE DEMOCRATS CHALLENGE HARSHER PENALTIES IN FEDERAL METHAMPHETAMINE BILL
   Provisions in proposed federal methamphetamine legislation that would increase penalties for trafficking were challenged by some Democrats, foiling supporters' attempt to make the bill non-controversial and fast-moving.
7. METHAMPHETAMINE: SAMHSA SAYS METH USE STEADY, PROBLEM USE INCREASING -- DATA SAYS YES BUT NOT AS MUCH AS SAMSHA IMPLIES
   Spin-meisters in the press office of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration exaggerated the findings of the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use released last week.
8. NEEDLE EXCHANGE: LA COPS HASSLE NEP CLIENTS -- COMPLAINT FILED
   After two incidents of Los Angeles police interfering with city-authorized needle exchange programs in the last two weeks, the director of one of them has filed a formal complaint against four LAPD officers with the city Police Commission.
9. HARM REDUCTION: CANADA HEALTH MINISTER SAYS MORE SAFE INJECTION SITES SHOULD OPEN IF COMMUNITIES APPROVE
   With Vancouver's Downtown Eastside safe injection site now two years old and working as planned, Canada's Health Minister has green-lighted the opening of more of them.
10. WEB SCAN
    GAO Report, Cascade and AAPS Blast Meth Madness, New Orleans Jail in the Flood, MedMj Legal Brief Bank, Charles Shaw on Alternet, DEA's Microgram
11. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
12. DRCNET T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST
    DRCNet is currently soliciting designs for new t-shirts to be made available on our web site and worn by people nationwide who want an end to prohibition and the war on drugs.
13. OSI OFFERING JUSTICE FELLOWSHIPS IN 2006 -- DEADLINE NEXT MONTH
    The Open Society Institute's US Justice Fund will support individuals in 2006 through two Fellowship programs. But the deadline is October 14, so move fast!
14. JOB OPPORTUNITY: NATIONAL FIELD DIRECTOR, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT
    The Marijuana Policy Project is hiring a National Field Director to spearhead MPP's grassroots organizing efforts in targeted congressional districts and nationwide.
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

Issue #404 -- 9/23/05

1. EDITORIAL: TIME FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
   The sad case of Jonathan Magbie again gained the public's attention after members of his family this week filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the District of Columbia.
2. ENDLESS DRUG WAR, ENDLESS VIOLENCE: HARTFORD LOOKS FOR A NEW WAY
   Despite or perhaps because of intense law enforcement efforts against the drug trade, the violence associated with Hartford, Connecticut's black market continues to grow. But a conference next month will bring leaders and reformers together to see if Hartford can find a new way out.
3. DRCNET IN AFGHANISTAN: REFORMER CONFERENCE APPROACHES IN KABUL AS AMERICANS AND RUSSIANS DECRY AFGHAN OPIUM TRADE
   With Afghanistan still producing nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin, alarm bells are ringing from Moscow to Washington. But a reform conference convening in Kabul next week will explore an alternative to the "more drug war" calls emanating from the Capitol and the Kremlin.
4. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: WISCONSIN BILL PENDING AS POLL SHOWS BROAD SUPPORT
   Medical marijuana is on the move in Wisconsin, with a legislator shopping his bill around and polling demonstrating massive public support.
5. NEEDLE EXCHANGE: BOSTON CRACKDOWN NETS NEEDLE EXCHANGE CLIENT
   A police crackdown on drug users in the Boston Common and Public Garden has raised the issue of the contradictory missions of public health and police in the drug war.
6. MARIJUANA: BOSTON'S FREEDOM RALLY BOUNCES BACK
   Recovering from a financial crunch after last year's Boston Freedom Rally against marijuana prohibition was washed out by Hurricane Ivan, the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition was back last weekend without missing a beat.
7. DRCNET T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST
   DRCNet is currently soliciting designs for new t-shirts to be made available on our web site and worn by people nationwide who want an end to prohibition and the war on drugs.
8. LATIN AMERICA: THREE SPANISH-LANGUAGE RESOURCES ON DRUG POLICY AVAILABLE
   Chronicle readers who speak Spanish might be interested in two books and a magazine that were available at the Buenos Aires conference last week.
9. WEB SCAN
   Change The Climate, Rockefeller Laws, Jonathan Magbie, Marc Emery, More...
10. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
11. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #403 -- 9/16/05

1. FEATURE: JUDGES AND LEGISLATORS FROM ACROSS LATIN AMERICA CALL FOR RADICAL DRUG LAW REFORM
   Attendees at last week's Buenos Aires saw something rare in North America: the active participation of judges, senators and congressman from across the continent calling for radical reform of the drug laws.
2. FEATURE: REFORMA ISSUES THE BUENOS AIRES DECLARATION, EYES 2008 VIENNA UN SESSION
   In parallel with the 1st Latin American Conference on Drug Policy Reform and the 1st Regional Symposium of Legislators and Judges on Drug Policy, the umbrella regional anti-prohibitionist coalition REFORMA held a series of meetings to chart strategy for both the national and international levels.
3. FEATURE: CANNABIS CULTURE IN BUENOS AIRES -- ALIVE AND SMOKIN', BUT WITH ONE EYE PEELED FOR THE POLICE
   Marijuana was by no means the primary focus of last week's Latin American drug policy reform conference. But in host city Buenos Aires as everywhere, its users and supporters make up a good chunk of the movement.
4. EUROPE: FORMER SCOTTISH HIGH COURT JUDGE SAYS LEGALIZE IT
   A week after a leading British Conservative suggested drug legalization, former judge of the Scottish High Court Lord McCluskey has added his voice as well.
5. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   We go from the small-time to the big time (and the big house) this week, as a Colorado deputy gets caught smuggling drugs to prisoners and a New Jersey State Police veteran is indicted as part of a massive drug conspiracy.
6. CANADA: LIBERALS GIVE UP ON MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION BILL FOR NOW
   The Liberal government's much unloved marijuana decriminalization bill is dead -- at least until after the next elections.
7. HEALTH CANADA REVISITS PROPOSAL TO DISTRIBUTE MEDICAL CANNABIS IN LICENSED PHARMACIES
   Health Canada may resurrect a proposal to make government grown medicinal cannabis available in licensed pharmacies, according to Canadian press reports and NORML.
8. LATIN AMERICA: IN CONTINUING SPAT, US DECERTIFIES VENEZUELA FOR LACK OF ANTI-DRUG COOPERATION
   The Bush-Chavez feud took another turn for the worse Thursday as the State Department added Venezuela to its annual list of countries it says are not adequately waging the war on drugs.
9. WEB SCAN
   Cato Pain Forum, Slate on Rehnquist and Placidyl, Alternet on the Marijuana War, NORML Video Blog
10. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
11. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #402 -- 9/9/05

1. FEATURE: REGIONAL ANTI-PROHIBITIONIST CONFERENCE GETS UNDER WAY IN BUENOS AIRES
   Dozens of drug reform activists from throughout Latin America and Europe joined with legislators, judges, lawyers, researchers and local activists in Buenos Aires Wednesday evening to kickoff the Latin American Meeting for Drug Policy Reform and the 1st Regional Syposium of Legislators and Judges on Drug Policy.
2. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Another mass bust of cops and soldiers in Arizona, a pair of DC cops having to explain why they had 90 pounds of coke in their luggage coming into Miami from South America, and a Honolulu cop busted for selling speed all make the Corrupt Cops feature this week.
3. EUROPE: CONTENDER FOR BRITISH TORY LEADERSHIP SAYS LEGALIZE DRUGS
   In remarks that will shock many Tories, a leading contender for the leadership of Britain's Conservative Party said Wednesday the United Nations should consider legalizing drugs.
4. ASIA: AFGHAN OPIUM PRODUCTION ESSENTIALLY STABLE THIS YEAR DESPITE CRACKDOWN
   Afghanistan's opium crop, which supplies an estimate 87 percent of the global market, declined only slightly less opium this year despite a government crackdown on peasant poppy farmers and rapidly increasing international efforts led by Britain and the United States.
5. PRESS RELEASE: LAWRENCE, KANSAS, MOVING TO SHIFT MARIJUANA PROSECUTIONS TO MUNICIPAL COURT TO AVOID HEA DRUG PROVISION
   A move afoot in the college town of Lawrence would save would-be students from losing college aid under a law punishing drug offenders convicted in state or federal court.
6. SENTENCING: NEW YORK GOVERNOR SIGNS ANOTHER PARTIAL ROCKY REFORM BILL -- WILL FREE AT MOST 500 PRISONERS
   At the last minute, New York's governor has signed into law a bill that will allow some 500 people imprisoned under the Rockefeller drug laws to appeal their sentences and perhaps get out of prison early. But the cases are complicated and the process is slow.
7. MARIJUANA: SURGE IN ARRESTS HAS LITTLE EFFECT ON USE RATES, STUDY FINDS
   Despite hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests each year, law enforcement has proven ineffective in curbing usage, the Justice Policy Institute reported in a study released late last month.
8. CANADA: VANCOUVER DRUG USERS' GROUP ASSISTS USERS WITH INJECTING IN ORDER TO REDUCE HIV TRANSMISSION
   In the wake of a Vancouver study finding users who have difficulty shooting up are more likely to contract HIV, a Vancouver drug users' group has begun a program to assist them -- potentially risking drug trafficking charges for doing so.
9. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: VIRGINIA NURSES ASSOCIATION REITERATES ITS SUPPORT
   The Virginia Nurses Association, the first in the country to come out in favor of medical marijuana, has reconfirmed its support for therapeutic cannabis and called for immediate legislation to legalize its medicinal use.
10. CROOKED SNITCHES: OREGON DROPS MORE THAN 40 CASES TIED TO BAD INFORMANT
    Marc Craven of Portland was a pro at bringing in information needed to bust alleged drug users and dealers. Unfortunately, also has a long history of entrapment and a felony criminal record. Now the state has dropped more than 40 of his cases.
11. EUROPE: CRACKDOWN IN GEORGIA
    Authorities in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia have embarked on an unprecedented effort to crack down on drug use and drug trafficking, and are employing tactics likely to promote vigilantism, according to drug reform activists.
12. QUOTE: WILLIAM REHNQUIST ON MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCING
    Proof that there is no conservative consensus in favor of harsh mandatory drug sentencing are remarks delivered by the late chief justice during a widely cited speech delivered in the 1990s.
13. MEDIA SCAN
    HEA in Boston Globe, Medical Marijuana in New England Journal of Medicine, Medscape, More
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
15. JOB OPPORTUNITIES: MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT
    The Marijuana Policy Project has full- and part-time job openings for campaigns in states around the country.
16. JOB OPPORTUNITY: HARM REDUCTION POSITION IN NEW MEXICO
    The Santa Fe Mountain Center is hiring a Street Outreach Worker to provide harm reduction outreach services to injection drug users in northern New Mexico.
17. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #401 -- 8/26/05

1. APPEAL: DRUG WAR CHRONICLE STILL NEEDS YOUR HELP
   DRCNet has reached an important milestone -- your support is needed for there to be more.
2. EDITORIAL: A TALE OF TWO CITIES
   The contrast between Seattle police at the Hempfest and paramilitarized Utah County forces at a rave in the desert could not be starker.
3. FEATURE: PLUR MEETS SWAT AS UTAH COPS ATTACK ELECTRONIC DANCE PARTY
   What was supposed to be a night of dancing to electronic beats under the desert stars turned into a nightmare when 90 Utah law enforcement officers dressed in combat gear and carrying assault rifles attacked.
4. FEATURE: NATIONAL METHAMPHETAMINE CONFERENCE CONVENES UNSCATHED DESPITE ATTACK BY CONGRESSIONAL DRUG WARRIOR
   In the midst of a media-driven legislative hysteria over methamphetamine, more than 900 people gathered in Salt Lake City for more reliable information on the drug and its links to HIV and Hepatitis.
5. FEATURE: BUSH ADMINISTRATION METHAMPHETAMINE INITIATIVE A BOMB
   Stung by criticisms that it wasn't paying sufficient attention to the "methamphetamine epidemic," the Bush administration late last week responded with its own meth initiative. But it has failed to satisfy critics from either side of the debate.
6. FEATURE: WESTERN HEMISPHERE ANTI-PROHIBITIONISTS SET TO GATHER IN BUENOS AIRES
   Argentina's capital city will be the location of a three-day conference next month bringing together anti-prohibitionists from across the hemisphere.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   A crooked police chief in Louisiana, a pair of crooked cops in Massachusetts, a quartet of crooked cops in Tennessee -- and one drug-dealing prison guard.
8. BLOGGING: AIRPORT CORRUPTION
   Finding a customs official or border guard willing to violate prohibition by turning a strategic blind eye is an easy matter with so much drug money available to spend.
9. MARIJUANA: LAWRENCE, KANSAS, PONDERS CITY MARIJUANA ORDINANCE -- IMPACT OF HEA CITED
   A proposal to move small-time marijuana possession offenses out of district court and into city court in the college of town of Lawrence, Kansas, is winning initial support from the mayor and other elected officials.
10. SENTENCING: ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAW REFORM MEASURE AWAITS GOV. PATAKI'S SIGNATURE
    A second chip may soon be removed from New York state's Rockefeller drug law wall.
11. EUROPE: FORMER BRITISH DRUG CZAR MO MOWLAM DEAD AT 55 -- CALLED FOR LEGALIZATION, AND WILL AGAIN IN FORTHCOMING BOOK
    Britain's outspoken former drug advisor has passed away, but her voice will live on in a forthcoming book called "Legalize Drugs."
12. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: SUPREME COURT JUSTICE REGRETS VOTE ON RAICH CASE
    Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens agrees with medical marijuana, but by Congress, not the court.
13. MARIJUANA: 14TH SEATTLE HEMPFEST DRAWS 150,000 -- NO ARRESTS
    The nation's largest annual marijuana protest/festival has come and gone, again drawing record crowds and notably recording no arrests of any kind.
14. EUROPE: SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY CONSIDERS PRESCRIPTION HEROIN
    A leading Scottish drug authority is preparing the case for his party to become the first mainstream political party in the United Kingdom to call for prescription heroin for addicts.
15. SENTENCING: KANSAS LAWMAKERS WANT "INTERNAL POSSESSION" CHARGE
    Police in Kansas can already charge people with possessing, selling, or manufacturing drugs, but that isn't enough for some law enforcement officials and legislators.
16. WEB SCAN
    U-Mass/DEA Hearings, JPI Report on Marijuana Enforcement's Non-Impact
17. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
18. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #400 -- 8/19/05

1. EDITORIAL: LONG MEMORIES
   Issue #400 seems as good a time as any to show off our long memories at DRCNet. David Borden's long memory points to a double standard in Ohio officialdom's outlook on possible ethical violations by the governor now vs. three years ago when the drug reform measure Question One was on the state's ballot.
2. APPEAL: PLEASE MAKE A 400TH ISSUE DONATION TO DRCNET FOR DRUG WAR CHRONICLE
   DRCNet reaches an important milestone today -- your support is needed for there to be more.
3. FEATURE: KILLER DRUG RAIDS -- WHAT'S THE ALTERNATIVE?
   Drug War Chronicle reports with depressing regularity on the needless deaths of people, both innocent and guilty, at the hands of police in the course of anti-drug enforcement. What's the alternative to killer drug raids?
4. FEATURE: DC "TWO MILLION IS TOO MANY" PRISON RALLY LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR MORE, BETTER COLLABORATION
   Roughly a thousand people showed up in Lafayette Park across from the White House Saturday for the first national rally aimed at ending this country's reliance on mass incarceration.
5. EUROPE: LEADER OF LIBERAL DEMOCRATS IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT SAYS LEGALIZE IT ALL
   The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrat party in the European Parliament has called for the legalization and regulation of all currently illicit drugs.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week it's more jail guards in trouble, a US soldier pleading guilty to coke-smuggling, and a Florida cop turned drug dealer.
7. BLOGGING: NATIONAL MARIJUANA PARKS
   DRCNet's Prohibition in the Media blog points to an Associated Press story on marijuana cultivation in Arizona's national forests that missed the point.
8. METHAMPHETAMINE: IN ANTI-METH LAB MOVE, OREGON BECOMES FIRST STATE TO REQUIRE PRESCRIPTION FOR COLD, ALLERGY MEDICATIONS
   Oregonians wanting Sudafed will now have to get a prescription, thanks to a legislature and governor who hope it will help curb meth labs.
9. METHAMPHETAMINE: SOUDER ATTACKS HHS FOR FUNDING HIV METH CONFERENCE
   A leading congressional drug warrior has angrily criticized the Department of Health and Human Services for allowing itself to be named as a "primary sponsor" of this weekend's first National Conference on HIV, Hepatitis and Methamphetamine. But prominent Utahns weren't with him on this one.
10. ASIA: MORE REEFER MADNESS FROM THE PHILIPPINES
    Hysteria over marijuana has been commonplace in the Philippines for years, and remarks this week by the National Police Deputy Director are a fine example.
11. WEB SCAN
    Seattle Weekly on the Drug Issue
12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
13. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #399 -- 8/12/05

1. APPEAL: NEW DRCNET BOOK OFFER AND REQUEST FOR YOUR SUPPORT
   As Drug War Chronicle approaches a milestone -- issue #400 -- your support is needed more than ever. A new donations incentive -- complimentary copies of the new book "Breaking Rank" -- is available for you too.
2. DRCNET INTERVIEW: FORMER SEATTLE POLICE CHIEF NORM STAMPER
   A new book by former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper provides a thoughtful, passionate, and careful analysis of the myriad issues confronting American law enforcement. The nation's chiefs and politicos would do well to read it -- and so would you!
3. FEATURE: VENEZUELA THROWS OUT DEA, WASHINGTON THREATENS DECERTIFICATION
   In a move that may have more to do with diplomatic tensions than anything else, President Hugo Chavez has annulled a bilateral agreement that had allowed the US DEA to operate in Venezuela.
4. FEATURE: IN MIDST OF METH MANIA AND SEX OFFENDER SCARES, MINNESOTA TAKES TINY, TINY STEP TOWARD DRUG SENTENCING REFORM
   New criminal justice legislation in Minnesota is mostly about putting more people in prison for longer. But a tiny start at drug sentencing reform is in there too.
5. TESTIMONIAL: WHAT DRCNET DOES FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA -- AND THE MOVEMENT
   Tom Angell of Students for Sensible Drug Policy explains some of what DRCNet's long-term movement-building strategy has meant for him and his work.
6. BLOGGING: DRCNET "PROHIBITION IN THE MEDIA" BLOG RESUMES PUBLISHING AS DRUG TRADE VIOLENCE HITS ACAPULCO, MEXICO
   DRCNet's "Prohibition in the Media" blog resumes publishing today after a hiatus. We comment on reporting by Reuters AlertNet, Reuters Foundation publication for international humanitarian nonprofits, on an outbreak of drug trade violence in the Mexican Pacific resort town of Acapulco.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   The Dallas sheetrock scandal continue to reverberate, drug cops in Florida and Ohio sample the wares, so does a crime lab tech in Missouri, and two more entrepreneurial jailers go down for their efforts.
8. DRUG RAIDS: FLORIDA SWAT TEAM KILLS BARTENDER IN HIS BEDROOM IN PREDAWN DRUG RAID -- TWO OUNCES OF MARIJUANA SEIZED
   Two members of a Sunset, Florida, SWAT team shot and killed a 23-year-old bartender early last Friday morning. The take -- two lousy ounces of marijuana.
9. METHAMPHETAMINES: IMMIGRANT STORE CLERKS BECOMING COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN WAR ON METH
   Spurred by new anti-meth laws which restricting the sales of cold remedies such as Sudafed, police and prosecutors across the country have been arresting convenience store clerks -- often immigrants -- sometimes on charges that carry substantial prison sentences.
10. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: CANNABIS CHURCHES SEEK TO INTERVENE IN UDV AYAHUASCA CASE WITH AMICUS BRIEF ARGUING BROAD INTERPRETATION
    A group of cannabis spiritualists are seeking to use an ayahuasca case going before the Supreme Court to urge the court to extend a religious freedom ruling to include marijuana.
11. RACIAL PROFILING: RHODE ISLAND POLICE STILL PICKING ON MINORITY MOTORISTS
    Four years after Rhode Island police began tracking the race of motorists they stop, a report by the state ACLU affiliate has found the problem may even be getting worse.
12. LATIN AMERICA: COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT SAYS GOVERNMENT MIGHT START BUYING COCA CROP
    In a stark contrast to current Colombian policy, ordinarily hard-line President Alvaro Uribe has proposed the government buy peasant farmers' coca crops in a bid to cut off funding to the FARC.
13. CANADA: METHAMPHETAMINE NOW SCHEDULE I, COOKS NOW FACE UP TO LIFE IN PRISON
    The Canadian federal government announced Thursday it had moved methamphetamine to Schedule I of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act -- signaling a significantly tougher stance against the stimulant and putting it on the same level as heroin and cocaine when it comes to sentencing.
14. WEB SCAN
    Marc Emery, Arianna Huffington, NORML on Marijuana vs. Marinol, Popular Science on Cannabis Medicines
15. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
16. JOB OPENINGS: THREE AT MPP
    The Marijuana Policy Project currently has three full-time job openings -- one in Las Vegas and two in Washington, DC.
17. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #398 -- 8/5/05

1. FEATURE: MARC EMERY BUSTED -- CANADA'S LEADING MARIJUANA ACTIVIST FACING LIFE IN AMERICAN PRISON OVER SEED SALES
   Controversy has erupted in Canada after police arrested British Columbia Marijuana Party founder Marc Emery and two employees at the request of the US DEA, which wants to extradite them.
2. FEATURE: THE METHAMPHETAMINE EPIDEMIC -- LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE
   News consumers on the US East Coast can be forgiven for nervously glancing over their shoulders in search of a 20-foot wave of crystal meth rolling toward them out of the Midwest. But there is less to the "epidemic" of methamphetamine than meets the eye.
3. FEATURE: PRISON PROTEST AIMING FOR DC IN EIGHT DAYS
   A grassroots call for a national rally for prison and sentencing reform will bear fruit eight days from now in Washington, DC.
4. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week, we've got cops stealing from drug dealers in Dayton and from the evidence locker in Detroit, and yet another prison guard caught trying to supplement his income.
5. PATRIOT ACT: HOUSE REAUTHORIZATION INCLUDES NEW "NARCOTERRORISM" OFFENSE
   A House of Representatives amendment to the Patriot Act would call any whose drug sales help fund listed terrorist group a "narco-terrorist" -- whether they knew it or not.
6. PATRIOT ACT: SOLD AS FIGHTING TERRORISTS, ACT IS USED IN MARIJUANA-SMUGGLING INVESTIGATION
   A Patriot Act provision sold as a crucial tool for combating terrorism has been used by federal officials to investigate a marijuana-smuggling operation.
7. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: NEW JERSEY POLICE LOOKING FOR MARIJUANA GROWERS MUST HAVE WARRANT TO SEE UTILITY RECORDS, APPEALS COURT HOLDS
   A state appeals court has said no to warrantless access to New Jerseyans utility bills. Now it goes to the state Supreme Court.
8. TREATMENT: CONGRESS LIFTS 30-PATIENT LIMIT FOR BUPRENORPHINE TREATMENT
   Both houses of Congress have approved legislation that will expand the use of methadone substitute buprenorphine as a treatment for heroin and other opioid dependency.
9. MARIJUANA: DENVER SAFER INITIATIVE HEADED FOR NOVEMBER BALLOT
   A voter initiative that would make Denver the first large city in the country to legalize marijuana possession is headed for the November ballot.
10. NEW ZEALAND: PARLIAMENT RECLASSIFIES SPEED AND ECSTASY, STIFFER PENALTIES COMING
    A move by the New Zealand Parliament will dramatically increase penalties for amphetamine-type stimulants.
11. TREATMENT: NEW WEB SITE PROVIDES RESOURCES ON OPIATE AGONIST THERAPY
    A new resource for patients, advocates, and opiate agonist treatment providers has appeared on the world-wide web.
12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
13. JOB OPPORTUNITY: PREVENTION POINT PITTSBURGH
    Prevention Point Pittsburgh is hiring a Crisis Interventionist/Cross Systems Specialist to provide risk reduction and crisis management services to injection drug users enrolled in the needle exchange program.
14. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #397 -- 7/29/05

1. EDITORIAL: CLEAR THINKING
   The new "meth baby" issue illustrates some of the obstacles to clear that are built into our issue.
2. THE SENSENBRENNER EFFECT: FEAR, FIRING, AND FALLOUT ON THE HILL
   A Congressional staffer who was the root of much drug war evil for more than 10 years has apparently been fired -- but no one wants to talk about it.
3. CONGRESS: HOUSE TURNS BACK REPEAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION ACT DRUG PROVISION, BATTLE RETURNS TO SENATE
   Progress was made amid defeat in a House committee markup vote last week.
4. METH AND MYTH: TOP DOCTORS, SCIENTISTS, AND SPECIALISTS WARN MASS MEDIA ON "METH BABY" STORIES
   More than 90 physicians, scientists, researchers, and treatment specialists Monday issued an open letter to the mass media calling it to task for "alarmist and unjustified" reporting on so-called "meth babies" and "ice babies."
5. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: BREAKING RANK: A TOP COP'S EXPOSE OF THE DARK SIDE OF AMERICAN POLICING
   Seattle's former top cop calls foul on the state of affairs in American policing today.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   It's mainly good, old-fashioned larceny this week, with sticky-fingered cops in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas making the news, while a Louisiana justice of the peace was trying to earn a little on the side.
7. THE FEDS: DEA DOESN'T FOLLOW OWN RULES ON SNITCHES, INSPECTOR GENERAL SAYS
   The DEA makes extensive use of confidential informants in their busts and prosecutions -- but does a poor job of judging their credibility or keeping track of how much they've been paid.
8. METHAMPHETAMINE: CONGRESSIONAL DRUG WARRIORS KEEP UP PRESSURE ON DRUG CZAR
   Republican drug warriors used a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday to renew their criticism of the Bush administration for proposed budget cuts that would affect programs that target methamphetamine.
9. ASIA: PLAN TO LEGALIZE AFGHAN OPIUM PRODUCTION DRAWING ATTENTION
   A proposal to deal with Afghanistan's opium crop through purchase for medical uses rather than eradication may see pilot projects start as soon as next year.
10. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: FLEX YOUR RIGHTS PROVIDES CITIZENS' GUIDE TO REFUSING NEW YORK SUBWAY SEARCHES
    The controversial new random search policy in New York City has prompted a controversial new web site section from the civil liberties organization training organization.
11. DRUGGED DRIVING: NO CONVICTION BASED JUST ON MARIJUANA TRACES, MICHIGAN APPEALS COURT RULES
    Prosecutors in Michigan will have to prove that drivers were actually intoxicated to convict them under the state's drugged driving law, a court has ruled.
12. MEDIA SCAN
    Time and New York Times on Pain, Nadelmann on Controlling Medical Marijuana
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. JOB OPPORTUNITY: OUTREACH COORDINATOR, STUDENTS FOR SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY
    Youngish activists might want to apply for this position to work with students from around the country!
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #396 -- 7/22/05

1. FEATURE: CONGRESSMAN SENSENBRENNER MAKING NAME AS DRUG WAR EXTREMIST
   Watch out, Mark Souder -- Rep. Sensenbrenner is giving you a run for your money in drug warring.
2. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: STEVE MCWILLIAMS REMEMBERED AT TUESDAY VIGILS
   Supporters in at least 15 cities across the country gathered to honor the memory of the patient and activist who committed suicide last week.
3. DRCNET INTERVIEW: CHER FORD-MCCULLOUGH AND JEAN MARLOWE OF THE WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION FOR NATIONAL PROHIBITION REFORM
   Modern-day activists revive the approach the ended prohibition of alcohol last century.
4. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: "AN ANALYTIC ASSESSMENT OF US DRUG POLICY," BY DAVID BOYUM AND PETER REUTER
   DRCNet Book Review: "An Analytic Assessment of US Drug Policy" by David Boyum and Peter Reuter (2005, American Enterprise Institute, 131 pp., $20.00 pb.)
5. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA REINSTATES ID CARD PROGRAM
   The suspension of California's pilot state medical marijuana ID card program in the wake of the US Supreme Court's adverse decision in the Raich case has proven short-lived.
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEARLY A THOUSAND RALLY IN SANTA CRUZ
   Activists held the largest medical marijuana demonstration in Santa Cruz since supportive city council members and county supervisors authorizes a medical marijuana-distributing demonstration on the steps of City Hall in support of WAMM after it was raided by the DEA.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Another prison guard smuggling dope, another cop caught tweaking, an airport security professional trying to get rich, a horny Florida deputy, and a Michigan police chief who sounds like a real decadent party animal.
8. NEW ZEALAND: IN PRAGMATIC RETREAT, NANDOR TANCZOS INTRODUCES MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION BILL
   In a retreat from the New Zealand Green Party's formal position that marijuana should be legalized, a Member of Parliament introduced a bill that would decriminalize possession.
9. EUROPE: MAGIC MUSHROOMS NOW ILLEGAL IN GREAT BRITAIN
   A loophole in Britain's drug law that allowed the importation of hallucinogenic mushrooms has now been closed.
10. ASIA: PHILIPPINES MAN GETS 15 YEARS FOR TWO JOINTS
    The sentencing of a man to 15 years in prison for possessing two marijuana cigarettes shows that the country remains mired in an on-going, full-blown anti-drug frenzy.
11. COERCED TREATMENT: PENNSYLVANIA LEGAL CHALLENGE THREATENS DRUG COURTS, JUDGE COMPLAINS
    An appeal filed a Pennsylvania woman could have national repercussions on the way drug courts work.
12. WEB SCAN
    NOW Resolution, American Chronicle, NYT Editorial on Richard Paey, NORML Report, APHA/DPA Oregon Amicus
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #395 -- 7/15/05

1. DRCNET INTERVIEW: CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROVIDER BRYAN EPIS
   Former California medical marijuana provider Bryan Epis is awaiting resentencing this month in the wake of a web of recent Supreme Court rulings. His original sentence was ten years.
2. FEATURE: CALIFORNIA'S "TREATMENT NOT JAIL" LAW FACES NEW ATTACK FROM OLD FOES
   Advocates and opponents of California's Proposition 36, passed with overwhelming voter approval in 2002, are in a war of words over a Senate bill that would effectively roll it back.
3. FEATURE: BUSH DRUG BUDGET CUTS FOR HIDTA, TASK FORCE GRANTS LOOK TO BE RESTORED
   The Bush administration appears set to lose one of their few drug policy proposals with which drug reformers agreed.
4. FEATURE: MUCH ADO ABOUT LOLLIPOPS -- MARIJUANA-FLAVORED CANDY, HEMP, POLITICIANS, AND THE MEDIA
   With politicians moving to get two marijuana-flavored candies taken off the market, hemp food advocates are scrambling to keep their products from getting mistakenly caught in the crossfire.
5. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week we have a Coast Guardsman who switched sides, a Minnesota top cop with a nasty cocaine habit, Florida deputy with the same problem, a Louisiana drug task force commander hanging out with the wrong relative, and a New Mexico jail guard using his position to gain goodies.
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST FACING FEDERAL PRISON TIME COMMITS SUICIDE, COMMEMORATIVE VIGILS SET FOR TUESDAY
   Long-time San Diego medical marijuana patient, provider, and activist Steven McWilliams killed himself Monday night. Supporters are holding vigils Tuesday night to protest the government's driving him to his death.
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: ACLU, DPA THREATEN TO SUE SCHWARZENEGGER OVER SUSPENDING CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM
   California authorities announced last week they were suspending a pilot medical marijuana ID program over fears of subjecting state officials and cardholders to federal prosecution. Now two organizations are suing the Schwarzenegger administration to get the program reopened.
8. MAD SCIENCE: HOUSE COMMITTEE APPROVES MYCOHERBICIDE TESTING IN BID TO WIPE OUT DRUG CROPS
   Ardent drug warriors in the US House of Representatives have forced a provision on anti-drug fungi into the ONDCP bill -- against the wishes of federal agencies who think it's too dangerous.
9. MARIJUANA: WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA POLICE CHIEFS SAY DECRIMINALIZE IT
   Under Pennsylvania law, possession of up to 30 grams of marijuana -- slightly more than an ounce -- is a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Some western Pennsylvania police chiefs would like to change that.
10. SENTENCING: HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEAD INTERFERES IN DRUG CASE, DEMANDS LONGER SENTENCE
    Rep. James Sensenbrenner has drawn criticism for privately demanding last month that a US appeals court alter its decision in a drug case.
11. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: UTAH FEDERAL COURT JUDGES SPLIT ON WARRANTLESS DOORKNOB DRUG TESTS
    Police in Utah have been using a machine that lets them search people's go to people's exterior home doorknobs for the presence of illicit drugs. Utah judges have split on the legality.
12. DRUG RAIDS: TWO UNARMED MEN KILLED IN SEPARATE DRUG RAIDS
    Hair-trigger police officers in separate drug raids in Utah and Florida shot and killed unarmed men early this month.
13. LATIN AMERICA: COCA LEADER POISED TO BECOME BOLIVIA'S NEXT PRESIDENT
    Two decades of hard-line US anti-drug policy in Bolivia is about to bear fruit, but it will be bitter fruit indeed for America's drug warriors.
14. ANNOUNCEMENT: SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE TO DRUG POLICY REFORM CONFERENCE IN LONG BEACH THIS NOVEMBER
    Are you an activist who wants to go to the national drug reform conferences but can never afford it? There may be a scholarship for you.
15. WEB SCAN
    Prison Smoking Ban, Patrick Crusade, Licensing Poppies, BlogCritics Book Review
16. JOB OPPORTUNITY: DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE, NYC
    Apply to work for our friend Tony Newman in New York!
17. SHORT TERM JOB OPPORTUNITY: MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT WEB SITE TRANSITION SPECIALIST
    Get paid to help MPP transition its web site to a new layout and server.
18. ERRATA: BRAZIL HARM REDUCTION
    Correction to last week's Brazil harm reduction story.
19. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #394 -- 7/8/05

1. EDITORIAL: FALLING BEHIND THE AYATOLLAHS AND THE COMMUNISTS
   Iran and Communist China are overtaking the United States in reforming policies lying at the intersection of the drug war and AIDS.
2. FEATURE: THE DOWNING STREET DRUG MEMO
   A suppressed British government report told Tony Blair two years ago the drug war has failed.
3. FEATURE: TWO MILLION IS TOO MANY -- GRASSROOTS MARCH AGAINST MASS IMPRISONMENT AIMS AT WASHINGTON, DC
   A broad and diverse coalition is coming together next month to protest the mass incarceration of their loved ones, friends, and countrymen.
4. FEATURE: DAMN MAD DAD USES ANCIENT VIDEO CLIPS IN ANTI-MEDICAL MARIJUANA SMEAR CAMPAIGN
   A New York anti-drug activist has edited together video clips from more than ten years ago to attempt to smear the medical marijuana issue. But the tape fails to deliver the damning evidence its maker promises.
5. ANNOUNCEMENT: SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE TO DRUG POLICY REFORM CONFERENCE IN LONG BEACH THIS NOVEMBER
   Are you an activist who wants to go to the national drug reform conferences but can never afford it? There may be a scholarship for you.
6. THE LONG MARCH: NOW ADOPTS STANCE OPPOSING DRUG WAR -- AFTER PRODDING FROM ACTIVISTS
   Meeting for its annual convention in Knoxville last weekend, the National Organization for Women (http://www.now.org) approved a resolution opposing the current drug war and calling instead for an approach to drug use, abuse, and addiction that emphasizes compassion, health, and human rights.
7. CAMPUS: EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ERROR ON HEA DRUG PROVISION DETERRED PEOPLE WITH DRUG CONVICTIONS FROM APPLYING FOR STUDENT AID
   The US Dept. of Education last week fixed an error on its financial aid web site that deterred some would-be students with drug convictions who might have regained their eligibility. But the deadline for applying had passed the day before.
8. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week we have a Texas twofer featuring a wheeling-dealing sheriff and a pot-selling cop, a New Hampshire drug task force with problems, yet another drug-dealing prison guard in New Mexico, and a coke-selling cop in Tennessee.
9. LATIN AMERICA: BRAZIL RECOGNIZES HARM REDUCTION
   Harm reduction programs such as needle exchanges have been underway in Brazil for at least 15 years, but have always operated in the legal shadows. Not anymore.
10. ASIA: INDONESIA COURT REOPENS CORBY TRIAL FOR NEW WITNESSES
    In a surprise move, the court that convicted Schapelle Corby of marijuana smuggling and sentenced her to 20 years has agreed to hear new witnesses that supporters say could win her freedom.
11. ASIA: GAO WARNS AFGHANISTAN EFFORT ENDANGERED BY DRUGS, TERRORISTS
    Afghanistan is in danger of once again become a "haven for terrorists," according to the US Government Accountability Office, and "limited" progress in suppressing Afghanistan's booming opium trade is a factor.
12. METHAMPHETAMINE: IN MOVE TO RESTORE FUNDING CUTS, LOCAL OFFICIALS DUB METH PUBLIC ENEMY #1
    A raft of news articles about methamphetamine accompanied the release of a police chiefs survey. But the subtext was funding.
13. OPIATE MAINTENANCE: KING COUNTY (SEATTLE) SEEKS APPROVAL TO PROVIDE METHADONE FOR IMPRISONED ADDICTS
    King County, Washington's jail hopes to become the second in the country to provide methadone maintenance to imprisoned addicts.
14. REPORT: TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE ON FAILED ANTI-MARIJUANA POLICY
    A report by the nonpartisan think tank Taxpayers for Common Sense has criticized government spending against marijuana.
15. WEB SCAN
    Change The Climate Flash Animation, Pain and the Law Report, Boston and Providence Phoenix on Medical Marijuana
16. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
17. JOB OPPORTUNITIES: ACLU DRUG LAW REFORM PROJECT
    The ACLU Drug Law Reform Project is hiring for the positions of National Field Organizer and Advocacy Associate.
18. JOB OPPORTUNITY: STUDENTS FOR SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY
    Students for Sensible Drug Policy is seeking applications for the position of Legislative Director.
19. JOB OPPORTUNITY: ACLU OF WASHINGTON DRUG LAW REFORM PROJECT
    The ACLU of Washington is seeking a Campaign Manager for the Drug Law Reform Project in its Seattle office.
20. ERRATA
    Moises Hernandez Case
21. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #393 -- 7/1/05

1. EDITORIAL: STAR WARS AND THE DRUG WAR
   At the risk of getting adversely "pegged," DRCNet's executive director makes a Star Wars analogy this week.
2. FEATURE: RHODE ISLAND GOVERNOR VETOES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL WEDNESDAY -- SENATE OVERRIDES THURSDAY
   Rhode Island's legislature may be on the way to overriding their governor's veto to become the 11th state to legalization medical use of marijuana.
3. FEATURE: COCA ON THE MARCH IN PERU
   In the last week, the Peruvian government's US-backed policy against coca cultivation has come under renewed attach from coca growers and their allies, including the local government of the ancient Inca capital in Cuzco.
4. FEATURE: MOST MARIJUANA USERS IN DRUG TREATMENT SENT THERE BY CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
   Three months ago, the government released a study finding that the number of people entering drug treatment for marijuana increased dramatically from 1992 to 2002. But a new government study released this week shows most were sent there in lieu of incarceration -- and have fewer signs of problematic drug use than those who weren't.
5. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   A sticky-fingered evidence room guard gets his reward, a long-running Dallas scandal takes down another cop, a New York City transit cop gets in trouble for his day job, and yet another prison guard gets caught peddling goodies to the inmates.
6. GLOBAL: WORLD DRUG TRADE WORTH $320 BILLION ANNUALLY, UN SAYS
   The 2005 World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime estimates the global drug trade's annual revenues at more than $320 billion per year.
7. AIDS/HIV: HARM REDUCTION WINS BATTLE IN UN AIDS SESSION
   US efforts to remove harm reduction and needle access programs from the anti-AIDS vocabulary were rebuffed by the United Nations' AIDS agency this week.
8. ASIA: CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL ANTI-DRUGS DAY WITH EXECUTIONS, BONFIRES
   In what has become a macabre annual ritual, China marked the United Nations' International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking Sunday by ordering the execution of at least 24 people for drug crimes in one city alone.
9. HEMP: REP. RON PAUL INTRODUCES FEDERAL BILL FOR INDUSTRIAL HEMP
   For the first time since the federal government outlawed industrial hemp farming in the 1937, a bill has been introduced in Congress to allow it.
10. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: US PATIENT SEEKS ACCESS TO BRITISH MARIJUANA EXTRACT SPRAY THROUGH INVESTIGATIONAL NEW DRUG PROGRAM
    Sativex, a prescription marijuana extract applied via sublingual spray, went on sale last week in Canada. This week a Multiple Sclerosis victim from Illinois and her doctor announced they are seeking access to it through the FDA's Investigational New Drug program.
11. AFRICA: CANNABIS CULTIVATION FEEDS A HUNDRED THOUSAND FAMILIES IN MOROCCO
    Morocco's Rif Mountains region, long famous as a center for Moroccan hashish production, continues to live up to its reputation.
12. EUROPE: BRITISH MARIJUANA SMOKERS GROW THEIR OWN
    England is experiencing an "unprecedented boom" in home marijuana grows, according to the British newspaper The Independent this week, and the trend has reached critical mass.
13. WEB SCAN
    Cato on Pain, MPP PSAs
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
15. JOB OPPORTUNITY: HARM REDUCTION COALITION, NYC
    The Harm Reduction Coalition is recruiting for the position of Assistant Training Coordinator for the Harm Reduction Training Institute.
16. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #392 -- 6/24/05

1. FEATURE: THE OTHER SHOE DROPS -- FEDS MOVE IN ON CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA
   Less than two weeks after the US Supreme Court upheld the federal government's power to ban medical marijuana, the other shoe has dropped in San Francisco.
2. FEATURE: RHODE ISLAND MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL PASSES HOUSE, BUT FACES THREATENED VETO
   Rhode Island is one giant step closer to enacting a medical marijuana law this year, with overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the legislatures voting yes on it. Now will the governor make good on his threat of a veto?
3. FEATURE: NEW JERSEY JUDGE STOPS NEEDLE EXCHANGE IN ITS TRACKS
   At the request of seven legislators, a New Jersey appellate court judge has issued a temporary injunction blocking the implementation of local government-sponsored needle exchange programs in two Garden State cities.
4. FEATURE: DEA RAID ON BILLINGS DOCTOR BRINGS PAIN WARS TO MONTANA
   The DEA's war without quarter against what it sees as corrupt, pill-dealing physicians came to Montana last month. But with the raid also came an uproar, as patients and pain advocates press their case in Montana's court of public opinion.
5. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Relationships with their snitches proved problematic this week for several law enforcement officers, while another had a problematic romance with an alleged dealer, and yet another resorted to good old armed robbery to get his share of the loot. Oh, and there's some pot on the loose down South.
6. SENTENCING: US ATTORNEY GENERAL CALLS FOR MORE MANDATORY MINIMUMS, LESS JUDICIAL DISCRETION
   Warning that there has been "a drift toward lesser sentences" since the US Supreme Court upended the federal sentencing structure last January, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called Tuesday for more mandatory minimum sentences.
7. PSYCHEDELICS: IN NEW MEXICO, GROWING 'SHROOMS NOT DRUG MANUFACTURE
   Persons who are caught growing hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Land of Enchantment cannot be prosecuted under the state's drug trafficking and manufacturing statute, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has ruled.
8. LATIN AMERICA: COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARIES IN GOING OUT OF BUSINESS COCAINE SALE
   A top Colombian military commander told the Associated Press last week that leaders of the rightist paramilitary militias are hurriedly selling-off huge amounts of cocaine before they demobilize under a sweetheart deal with the Colombian government.
9. ASIA: MALAYSIA TO PROVIDE NEEDLES, CONDOMS FOR HARD DRUG USERS
   Malaysia's government hangs drug traffickers for their crimes. But at least it is trying to stop injection drug users from hanging themselves with HIV.
10. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
11. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #391 -- 6/17/05

1. FEATURE: HOUSE MOVE TO BAN FUNDS FOR FEDERAL RAIDS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS GAINS SUPPORT, BUT FALLS SHORT
   The US House of Representatives Wednesday turned back a measure that would have barred the use of federal funds to go after sick people using marijuana for medical reasons.
2. FEATURE: ANOTHER "DRUG RELATED" DEATH -- AUSTIN POLICEWOMAN KILLS UNARMED TEEN
   It was in shabby subdivisions of southeast Austin that 18-year-old Daniel Rocha died, his heart penetrated by a single slug fired at point blank range by Austin police officer Julie Schroeder -- into his back.
3. FEATURE: US HAS MORE THAN A MILLION PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV, GOVERNMENT SAYS -- AS IT IGNORES PREVENTION FOR DRUG-RELATED CASES
   Federal officials continue to turn a blind eye to needle exchange programs -- and to pressure others to do so -- despite one-half of all new HIV cases being related to injection drug use.
4. FEATURE: CREEPSHOW -- A DISTURBING GLIMPSE INTO DEA MENTALITY
   We admit it: We don't like the DEA. But an unofficial web site for former and current DEA agents doesn't help its case either.
5. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   A sheriff on the border succumbs to temptation, a prosecutor in San Francisco trades leniency for crank, two jail guards in New Jersey see their retail operation crash and burn, and a love-struck West Virginia cop makes a bad choice.
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: RHODE ISLAND BILL APPROVED IN HOUSE COMMITTEE, FACES ONE LAST VOTE, BUT GOVERNOR VOWS VETO
   Rhode Island's governor is threatening to veto a pending medical marijuana bill supported overwhelmingly by the legislature. His office is giving medical marijuana supporters who offer their opinions "rude treatment."
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: HAWAII FEDERAL PROSECUTOR BACKS OFF
   Following criticism and under threat of a lawsuit for comments made after the Supreme Court's Raich decision, Hawaii US Attorney Ed Kubo has backed off.
8. POLICING: PHILADELPHIA DA DISBANDS DRUG UNIT
   Citing budgetary constraints, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynn Abraham has disbanded a specialized group of prosecutors who had worked drug cases.
9. LATIN AMERICA: COCAINE PRODUCTION ON THE INCREASE, UN SAYS
   After five years of declines, cocaine production in South America is once again on the rise, the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime has reported. But it never really went away.
10. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICAN ARMY INVADES NUEVO LAREDO, DETAINS POLICE FORCE AS CARTEL VIOLENCE HITS BORDER CITY
    The Mexican Army was patrolling the streets of Nuevo Laredo earlier this week after a steady drumbeat of drug prohibition-related violence reached a spectacular double crescendo last week.
11. AFRICA: SWAZILAND MARIJUANA GROWERS UNSTOPPABLE, POLICE SAY
    With African nations waiting for the effects of debt relief agreed on this week to gradually trickle down, farmers in the southern kingdom of Swaziland are making micro-level decisions to grown marijuana in the meantime.
12. MEDIA SCAN: SEATTLE TIMES
    The Seattle Times draws on the work of the King County Bar Association and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition to conclude it is "[t]ime for a new strategy in the war on drugs."
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #390 -- 6/10/05

1. EDITORIAL: LEARN TO SEE HOPE
   These times while dark hold hope for change, and those who learn to see hope can bring it to fruition the sooner thereby.
2. FEATURE: RAICH CASE RULING -- FEDS CAN ENFORCE MARIJUANA LAWS AGAINST PATIENTS, BUT STATE LAWS REMAIN IN EFFECT
   Contrary to what some anti-drug groups claim, state medical marijuana laws were not affected by yesterday's ruling, and remain in effect -- nothing in the law has changed.
3. DRCNET INTERVIEW: SUPREME COURT PLAINTIFF ANGEL MCLARY RAICH
   DRCNet spoke with Supreme Court plaintiff Angel Raich Thursday to see how she is responding to the decision and what comes next.
4. FEATURE: IN THE WAKE OF RAICH -- OFFICIALS IN THREE MEDICAL MARIJUANA STATES OVERREACT
   While the Supreme Court's Monday ruling in the Raich case did not invalidate any state medical marijuana laws -- they were not addressed by the court -- officials in at least three medical marijuana states reacted as if it had. Advocates are threatening to sue -- sooner rather than later -- if they don't back down.
5. FEATURE: RAICH RAMIFICATIONS -- THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
   Monday's Supreme Court decision does not change either state or federal laws regarding medical marijuana and has changed little on the ground. But the decision's ramifications are already beginning to reverberate in the nation's political scene.
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: ONE DAY AFTER RAICH, RHODE ISLAND SENATE PASSES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL
   One day after the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban against medical marijuana, legislators in Rhode Island passed a medical marijuana bill by the most impressive margin ever recorded on the issue.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   More trouble for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a coke-crazed cop gets his first sentence, a deputy picks the wrong time to score, and a Mississippi twofer.
8. MARIJUANA: RETAILERS SAY LEGALIZE IT IN ONLINE POLL
   Prompted by last week's news that 500 economists including Nobel laureate Milton Friedman had called for a national debate on marijuana policy, RetailWire.com took the question to its readership.
9. EUROPE: DUTCH MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM AILING IN FACE OF WIDESPREAD AVAILABILITY FOR ALL
   If marijuana is easily and legally available for all comers, you don't really need a medical marijuana program, the Dutch government is finding out.
10. CANADA: VANCOUVER TELLS OTTAWA TO LEGALIZE IT
    A city of Vancouver report calls for the full-blown legalization of marijuana in Canada.
11. ASIA: INDONESIAN PROTESTORS CALL FOR CORBY'S EXECUTION WHILE AUSTRALIANS CALL FOR BALI BOYCOTT
    The case of Schapelle Corby, an Australian woman sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison after being convicted of marijuana smuggling, continues to roil relations between the two countries.
12. ASIA: IN MAJOR SHIFT, CHINA TO PROMOTE NEEDLE EXCHANGE
    In an implicit acknowledgment that purely repressive measures have not worked to reduce the nation's burgeoning HIV infection rate, the Chinese Health Ministry this week called on local communities around the country to promote needle exchange programs and the distribution of free condoms.
13. MEDIA SCAN
    Pain Man, Connecticut Cocaine Sentencing, Uncontrolled Substances
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #389 -- 6/3/05

1. FEATURE: US CONGRESSMAN CRITICIZES DRUG WAR AT JOHN W. PERRY FUND RECEPTION IN SEATTLE
   More than 50 Seattle area drug reformers, educators, and political figures led by US Rep. Jim McDermott gathered Wednesday evening in downtown Seattle for a successful fundraiser for a scholarship program set up by DRCNet to provide financial aid to students losing financial aid for college because of drug convictions.
2. FEATURE: BRITISH COURTS REJECT MEDICAL MARIJUANA NECESSITY DEFENSE
   The British Court of Appeal has ruled that medical marijuana users or suppliers in the United Kingdom may not avoid conviction by raising a medical necessity defense. But they also left the way open for an appeal to the House of Lords.
3. FEATURE: HIGH SCHOOL DRUG BUST AND HARD-LINE PROSECUTOR PROVE VOLATILE MIX IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS COUNTY
   An eight-month undercover investigation and mass arrest of minor offenders seemed like business as usual -- until a hard-line prosecutor announced he would charge them under the state's draconian "drug free school zone" law, inciting a civic rebellion that has yet to reach a conclusion.
4. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Another week, another busted Border Patrol agent, another crooked cop going to the pen, a prosecutor gone bad headed to the same place -- and a case from New York City that demonstrates the moral rot at the heart of drug law enforcement.
5. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: LAWMAKERS RAID OREGON MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM SURPLUS
   Oregon legislators seeking to get the state Department of Human Services budget out of the red are moving on a bill that would reduce the deficit by, among other things, grabbing $900,000 in medical marijuana user fees currently sitting in a state Office of Medical Marijuana account.
6. SENTENCING: 9TH CIRCUIT SAYS PRISONERS WITH APPEALS PENDING CAN CHALLENGE SENTENCES
   The fall-out from a pair of Supreme Court decisions upending the nearly 20-year-old federal sentencing guidelines scheme continues.
7. SENTENCING: CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR VETOES BILL THAT WOULD HAVE ELIMINATED CRACK AND POWDER COCAINE SENTENCING DISPARITIES
   Connecticut's Republican governor, Jodi Rell, vetoed legislation Thursday that would have eliminated the disparity in sentences involving crack versus powder cocaine.
8. MARIJUANA: ALASKA GOVERNOR PLOTTING AGAINST MARIJUANA AGAIN, EYES 2006 SESSION
   Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski is addicted to criminalization and has vowed to pursue recently defeated anti-marijuana bills again next year.
9. MARIJUANA: MILTON FRIEDMAN AND 500 ECONOMISTS CALL FOR DEBATE ON PROHIBITION AS STUDY SUGGESTS REGULATION COULD SAVE BILLIONS
   Using the Wednesday release of a cost study of marijuana prohibition as a peg, more than 500 economists led by free market apostle Milton Friedman are calling for a national debate on moving toward regulated marijuana markets.
10. ASIA: CHINA SAYS DRUG WAR IS FAILING
    Blaming free trade and globalization, the authoritarian government of the planet's most populous nation conceded Thursday that its multiple crackdowns on drugs have failed to blunt increasing use.
11. AUSTRALIA: FIRST "DRUGGED DRIVER" TO SUE POLICE FOR DEFAMATION
    Forty-year-old John de John was exonerated of "drugged driving" by a laboratory, but only after TV camera crews had filmed his being stopped, forced to submit to drug tests and accused by police. Now he is suing the Australian state of Victoria for defamation.
12. ASIA: PHILIPPINES FARMERS SAY NO ROAD, NO END TO MARIJUANA GROWING
    Elders and officials in the remote Philippine region of Ifugao are "no longer excited" about participating in marijuana eradication programs. Their complaint -- the government has failed in its promise to build roads, and legal crops therefore cannot make it to market before rotting.
13. JOB LISTING: NATIONAL FIELD ORGANIZER, ACLU DRUG LAW REFORM PROJECT
    The ACLU Drug Law Reform Project is hiring.
14. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #388 -- 5/27/05

1. EDITORIAL: REASONABLE STANDARDS
   Routine perjury by police officers in drug cases should make the standard of reasonable doubt impossible to attain in the absence of evidence corroborating an officer's testimony. New Congressional legislation inspired by the Tulia scandal and sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has recognized the depth of this problem.
2. FEATURE: FEDERAL BILL TO REIN IN ANTI-DRUG TASK FORCES INTRODUCED IN RESPONSE TO TULIA SCANDAL
   Five years after 15 percent of the black population of small-town Tulia was rolled-up in a cocaine bust conducted by a rogue lawman, the reverberations from those arrests have arrived on Capitol Hill.
3. FEATURE: "DRUG TOURISTS" PROVOKE COMPETING CRIES FOR REGULATION, REPRESSION IN HOLLAND
   For nearly three decades, the Dutch approach to marijuana has made The Netherlands a beacon for drug reformers and pot connoisseurs alike. Now the government is at odds with itself in the debate over foreign "drug tourists."
4. FEATURE: CHANCES OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA PASSAGE IN STATEHOUSES NOW FOCUSED ON NORTHEAST
   The best prospects for successful passage of medical marijuana legislation this year are narrowing down to three states in the Northeast. Progress has been made, but hurdles remain.
5. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET/PERRY FUND EVENT TO FEATURE US REP. JIM MCDERMOTT, JUNE 1 IN SEATTLE
   Please join DRCNet and the Perry Fund for the first West Coast stop in our national tour raising money for student scholarships and awareness of a bad law.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Missing evidence, missing money, a DA failing to act, a jury failing to convict, and a cop failing to keep his bad habits under control all make their way into this week's rogue's gallery.
7. MARIJUANA: MAINE GOVERNOR WANTS TO INCREASE FINES TO PAY FOR NARCS
   Maine's governor wants marijuana users to pay more for their own persecution.
8. CONGRESS: HOUSE BILL WOULD LET "VICTIMS" SUE DRUG DEALERS, BUT ONLY IF THEY SNITCH
   A bill introduced in Congress would allow people harmed by illegal drug use to sue those who made or sold the drugs -- but only if they snitch.
9. SOUTHWEST ASIA: AZERBAIJAN, US SIGN ANTI-DRUG AGREEMENT DESPITE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
   Despite US State Dept. documentation of extensive human rights abuses in Azerbaijan's criminal justice system, US taxpayers will transfer millions of dollars to the Azeri government as part of an anti-drug agreement.
10. EUROPE: SWISS PANEL SAYS NEW DRUG POLICY SHOULD INCLUDE ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, OPT FOR PRAGMATISM
    A federal commission has recommended that Switzerland adopt a drug policy that deals consistently and pragmatically with all drugs -- including alcohol and tobacco.
11. ASIA: THAI DRUG WAR NOW TARGETS COCAINE
    Thailand's prime minister has expanded his murderous war on drugs to include cocaine, mainly used by tourists and the wealthy. But he has scaled back his promise to make the nation "drug free."
12. UPDATE: SCHAPELLE CORBY SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS
    As legal observers predicted, Australian cause celèbre Schapelle Corby was spared the death penalty but given a heavy prison term for a marijuana conviction by an Indonesian court.
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. JOB LISTING: OUTREACH COORDINATOR, COALITION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ACT REFORM (DRCNET)
    Work is available from July onward in the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act.
15. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #387 -- 5/20/05

1. EDITORIAL: WEAK CLAIMS OF SUCCESS
   The drug czar's claims of successes are weak and should not be allowed to obfuscate the harms the drug war has wrought.
2. FEATURE: BUSH ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS SUCCESS IN COLOMBIA DRUG WAR, SEEKS MORE MONEY
   As the annual congressional appropriations battle over funding for the US war on drugs in Colombia begins anew, critics are pointing to all sorts of problems and organizing for a new approach.
3. FEATURE: AS CALIFORNIA GRAPPLES WITH MEDICAL MARIJUANA, SOME COMMUNITIES MOVE TO REGULATE OR BAN DISPENSARIES
   Nearly a decade after the passage of California's groundbreaking Proposition 215, which made medicinal marijuana use legal, some communities are attempting to circumvent the law with local moratoria and bans.
4. NIGHTMARE IN BALI: YOUNG AUSTRALIAN WOMAN FACES POSSIBLE DEATH SENTENCE FOR MARIJUANA SMUGGLING IN CASE STIRRING PASSIONS
   The case of Schapelle Corby, a 27-year-old beautician from Australia facing a possible death sentence in Indonesia for marijuana found in her luggage, is gaining global attention and threatening to damage relations between the two neighbors.
5. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET/PERRY FUND EVENT TO FEATURE US REP. JIM MCDERMOTT, JUNE 1 IN SEATTLE
   Please join DRCNet and the Perry Fund for the first west coast stop in our national tour raising money for student scholarships and awareness of a bad law.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   The temptations of prohibition are writ large this week with a massive bust of cops and soldiers in Arizona, while on the East Coast, one cop is going to prison in Buffalo and two more appear headed that way in Baltimore. And out in the Rockies, having sex with a snitch is proving troublesome for one wayward law enforcement Lothario.
7. FREE SPEECH: NJ WEEDMAN ARRESTED AT STATEHOUSE OVER POT LEAF T-SHIRT
   Veteran wild man marijuana activist Ed Forchion, better known as the New Jersey Weedman, was arrested May 11 by New Jersey State Troopers as he attempted to enter the state capitol building in Trenton to deliver a press release to reporters.
8. SPORTS: DRUG CZAR'S TEAM RUNS FROM DRUG REFORM "ONE-HITTERS"
   A softball team fielded by staff of The Office of National Drug Control Policy, home of drug czar John Walters, has backed away from a confrontation with home town drug reformers.
9. AUSTRALIA: SOUTH AUSTRALIA ANNOUNCES TOUGH NEW DRUG LAWS
   In a move that has prompted accusations of political grandstanding by opponents, South Australia Premier Mike Rann announced Monday that the state will crack down on some drug offenses with tougher penalties to go into effect later this year.
10. ASIA: US "DRUG EXPERT" SAYS NO WAY TO AFGHAN OPIUM-INTO-MEDICINE PROPOSAL
    Even as violence once again flared in the US-backed campaign to eradicate Afghanistan's opium crop, a recently resigned former top State Department drug fighter rejected a proposal to solve the Afghan opium dilemma by diverting the crop to the legitimate global medicinal market.
11. CANADA: FORMER VANCOUVER TOP DRUG COP'S STUDY FINDS DRUG BUSTS BOOST DRUG SALES
    In a prohibition paradox, crackdowns on retail drug dealers result in lower prices and increased drug sales, says Vancouver Police Inspector Kash Heed, a former head of the department's drug squad.
12. EUROPE: GERMAN DRUG DEATHS AT 15-YEAR LOW, GOVERNMENT CREDITS HARM REDUCTION
    An annual report from the German Health Ministry has found that the number of people who died from illegal drug use in Germany is at its lowest level since 1989, and the German government is crediting harm reduction measures for the decline.
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. JOB LISTING: OUTREACH COORDINATOR, COALITION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ACT REFORM (DRCNET)
    Work is available from July onward in the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act.
15. MORE JOB LISTINGS: DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT, COMMUNITY HIV/AIDS MOBILIZATION PROJECT
    Work is available at a variety of organizations in drug policy reform and AIDS/harm reduction.
16. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #386 -- 5/13/05

1. EDITORIAL: PAYING FOR PROPAGANDA
   Largely absent from recent debates on government-financed propaganda have been the long-running, thoroughly bipartisan anti-drug media campaigns -- which include paid advertising but are by no means limited to it.
2. FEATURE: MARIJUANA REMAINS LEGAL IN ALASKA
   Alaska remains the only state in the union where adults may legally possess marijuana, after the legislature adjourned without acting on a bill sponsored by the governor to recriminalize it.
3. FEATURE: MAJOR RUSSIAN DRUG REFORMS ON VERGE ON BEING REVERSED
   Dramatic reforms in Russia's criminal code past last year are on the verge of being reversed, thanks to lobbying by Russia's counterpart to the DEA.
4. FEATURE: ONDCP STUDENT DRUG TESTING ROAD SHOW DOGGED BY "TRUTH SQUADS"
   A four-city road show organized by the Office of National Drug Control Policy to promote student drug testing ended Wednesday.
5. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET/PERRY FUND EVENT TO FEATURE US REP. JIM MCDERMOTT, JUNE 1 IN SEATTLE
   Please join DRCNet and the Perry Fund for the first west coast stop in our national tour raising money for student scholarships and awareness of a bad law.
6. SENTENCING: HOUSE PASSES ORWELLIAN "ANTI-GANG" MANDATORY MINIMUMS
   Seventy-one House Democrats voted with a near-solid Republican majority to approve an "anti-gang" bill that includes many new and increased mandatory minimum sentences, including increased penalties for some drug offenses.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   This week, we revisit some corrupt cops we've covered in the past as new developments unfold.
8. COCAINE: CONNECTICUT HOUSE PASSES BILL TO ELIMINATE CRACK/POWDER DISPARITIES
   The Connecticut House of Representatives Tuesday passed a bill that would eliminate sentencing disparities between powder cocaine and crack cocaine sentences.
9. PAIN: BOSTON CONGRESSMAN WANTS NATIONWIDE BAN ON OXYCONTIN
   A Massachusetts congressman has introduced a bill to ban Oxycontin nationwide. It's not going over well.
10. PAIN: ABC'S NIGHTLINE GIVES SYMPATHETIC LOOK AT PAIN TREATMENT VS. PROHIBITION
    The growing controversy over the clash between the imperatives of medicine and those of the drug war when it comes to the use of opioids for pain treatment was the topic of ABC News' Nightline program Wednesday night.
11. PRISONS: SEX ABUSE OF FEDERAL INMATES BY GUARDS "A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM," JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SAYS
    The sexual abuse of inmates in the federal prison by US Bureau of Prisons personnel is a significant, ongoing problem that is often ignored by administrators and prosecutors, a report by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General has found.
12. INITIATIVES: DENVER MARIJUANA INITIATIVE SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL
    Fresh from organizing successful student referenda on two campuses, a Colorado group Wednesday announced it had taken the first step to place a measure legalizing marijuana possession in Denver on the November ballot.
13. INITIATIVES: MICHIGAN MARIJUANA INITIATIVE EFFORT GETS UNDERWAY
    A Michigan organization has begun gathering signatures to place an amendment eliminating penalties for personal use, possession, or cultivation of marijuana on the November 2006 ballot.
14. MIDDLE EAST: LAWLESS IRAQ BECOMING KEY DRUG CORRIDOR, INCB SAYS
    High levels of violence and instability, along with porous borders, are drawing drug traffickers to Iraq, the International Narcotics Control Board said Thursday.
15. ASIA: TAIWAN CONSIDERS SYRINGE ACCESS TO REDUCE AIDS SPREAD
    Responding to figures showing injection drug use is now the leading cause of new HIV infections in Taiwan, health officials there announced they are considering providing drug users with sterile syringes.
16. CARIBBEAN: "GANJA PLANTER" LAMENT TOPS THE CHARTS IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
    A song bemoaning the plight of marijuana growers is all the rage in the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad & Tobago.
17. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
18. JOB LISTING: OUTREACH COORDINATOR, COALITION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ACT REFORM (DRCNET)
    Work is available from July onward in the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act.
19. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #385 -- 5/6/05

1. EDITORIAL: BAY STATE AGONY
   A committee of the Massachusetts legislature is considering a proposal to ban the widely-used painkiller Oxycontin outright. They should think about the people of the Bay State living in pain before taking such a reckless action.
2. FEATURE: WAR ON DRUGS SHIFTS TO WAR ON MARIJUANA
   A study of FBI arrest and conviction data by a Washington think-tank has underscored a dramatic shift -- and escalation -- in the US war on drugs during the 1990s.
3. FEATURE: STUDENTS AT SUNY NEW PALTZ RALLY TO DEMAND END OF MARIJUANA EXPULSIONS
   Two marijuana-related offenses can get you expelled from school at SUNY New Paltz -- as Kate Cozik found out the hard way. Now, with the support of local politicos, students are rallying for change.
4. FEATURE: "MARIJUANA IS SAFER" -- REFORMERS TAKE UP A NEW REFRAIN
   Last month, students at two Colorado universities voted overwhelmingly in support of referenda urging their schools to equalize school penalties for marijuana and alcohol infractions. Reformers, typically cautious of rhetoric that could be portrayed by opponents as encouraging drug use, are now pondering the political wisdom of the "marijuana is safer" message.
5. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET/PERRY FUND EVENT TO FEATURE US REP. JIM MCDERMOTT, JUNE 1 IN SEATTLE
   Please join DRCNet and the Perry Fund for the first west coast stop in our national tour raising money for student scholarships and awareness of a bad law.
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: FEDERAL BILL RE-LAUNCHED AND AMENDMENT PLANS ANNOUNCED AT DC PRESS CONFERENCE
   Congressmen, celebrities, medical marijuana patients and activists gathered for a press conference in Washington Wednesday to mark the reintroduction of two bills designed to ease the federal government's war on medical marijuana users and providers.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   It's another full plate this week, with cops ripping off drug buyers, getting kinky on stolen cocaine, and trying to frame citizens.
8. ASSET FORFEITURE: ALBUQUERQUE POLICE BROKE LAW WITH SEIZED FUNDS
   A City of Albuquerque audit of the city police department's use of federal drug forfeiture money has found the department violated state law and federal guidelines in its use of seized drug money.
9. METHAMPHETAMINE: OREGON DOCTORS REJECT PROPOSAL TO TURN IN METH USERS TO HEALTH OFFICIALS
   The Oregon Medical Association last weekend rejected a resolution proposing a state law that would require doctors to report methamphetamine-using patients to public health authorities.
10. METHAMPHETAMINE: METH-COOKING DEMO AT SCHOOL PERTURBS PARENTS
    Parents in Grays Harbor County, Washington, have gone "through the roof" over a deputy sheriff's demo for a high school class of how to cook methamphetamine.
11. OXYCONTIN: MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS WEIGH BAN ON POPULAR PAIN RELIEVER
    Legislators in Massachusetts are considering an outright ban on the popular narcotic pain reliever Oxycontin.
12. PRISONS: SOME ARCHITECTS CALL FOR PROFESSION TO REJECT PRISON, JAIL DESIGN JOBS
    A new movement has emerged among architects to boycott bids to design new jails and prisons.
13. NEEDLE EXCHANGE: NEW JERSEY CITIES EXPECT NEP APPROVAL TODAY
    Thanks to an executive order by former Gov. Jim McGreevey, two new cities are now set to open legal needle exchange programs. Legal challenges to the order remain undecided.
14. NEEDLE EXCHANGE: MASSACHUSETTS MELTDOWN
    Like the frightened, angry peasants who marched on Frankenstein's castle waving pitchforks and torches, the good citizens of Westport, Massachusetts, fended off the menace of a city-approved needle exchange program last week.
15. REEFER MADNESS: FEDS WARN THAT MARIJUANA MAKES KIDS CRAZY
    As part of national media campaign to educate youth about the "serious consequences" of marijuana use, drug czar John Walters and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration co-hosted a Tuesday press conference to warn that kids who smoke marijuana are more likely to develop mental health problems. But the research doesn't seem to add up to that conclusion.
16. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
17. JOB LISTING: OUTREACH COORDINATOR, COALITION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ACT REFORM (DRCNET)
    Work is available from July onward in the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act.
18. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #384 -- 4/29/05

1. EDITORIAL: POINTLESSNESS
   A well conceived civil disobedience, or obedience, by fellow reformers abroad is effectively illustrating the pointlessness of drug prohibition.
2. FEATURE: IN CIVIL OBEDIENCE CAMPAIGN, HUNGARIAN DRUG USERS TURN THEMSELVES IN
   A campaign by drug users and former drug users has been giving Hungarian police fits -- and putting drug reform in the media spotlight just as a Hungarian parliamentary committee examining the subject is getting underway.
3. FEATURE: MARIJUANA RESEARCH GROW EFFORT HEADS FOR DEA HEARING
   The federal government has long stalled efforts to reclassify marijuana and obstructed attempts by researchers to do studies that could lead to the development of marijuana as a legal prescription medicine. Now, a Univ. of Massachusetts researcher is seeking a DEA hearing to allow him to seek scientific truth.
4. FEATURE: THE NORTH AMERICAN SYRINGE EXCHANGE CONVENTION
   Front-line harm reduction workers from around the country converged on Tacoma, Washington, last week for the annual North American Syringe Exchange Convention.
5. DRCNET INTERVIEW: TEN YEARS OF ORGANIZING HARD DRUG USERS -- ANN LIVINGSTON OF THE VANCOUVER AREA NETWORK OF DRUG USERS
   Hard drug users are demonized in Canada too, not just the US. But in Vancouver, home to one of the hemisphere's largest concentrations, they have organized and are taking a prominent role in shaping the city's cutting edge drug policies. Ann Livingston has been with the group from the beginning and talks to DRCNet about how it happened and how it can be replicated.
6. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET/PERRY FUND EVENT TO FEATURE US REP. JIM MCDERMOTT, JUNE 1 IN SEATTLE
   Please join DRCNet and the Perry Fund for the first west coast stop in our national tour raising money for student scholarships and awareness of a bad law.
7. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   From the Big Apple to the Heartland, this week's roll of dishonor includes both corruption based on good, old-fashioned greed and the perhaps even more corrosive corruption of law enforcement officers abusing citizens and the law itself in their efforts to fight the drug war.
8. BAD COPS II: SOUTH TEXAS DRUG TASK FORCE FIGHTS DIRTY
   Texas state senator Juan Hinojosa worked to restrict the use of undercover police agents in the wake of the Tulia scandal. Now he has two bills that have aroused the ire of at least one Texas drug task force, and those cops are fighting back.
9. PRISONS: US INMATE POPULATION CONTINUES TO SWELL, NOW AT 2.1 MILLION
   The US prison system grew by about 900 prisoners a week between June 2003 and June 2004, and now tops 2.1 million.
10. DRUG CZAR: WALTERS UNDER ATTACK BY PROHIBITIONISTS
    Washington's prohibition establishment is beginning to eat its own tail, according to a report this week in the National Journal.
11. MARIJUANA MARCH: GLOBAL MARCH MAY 7 IN MORE THAN 180 CITIES
    If it is almost May, it is also almost time for the annual march for marijuana legalization coordinated by Dana Beal and his New York City-based organization, Cures Not Wars.
12. HOLLAND: MINISTERS SQUABBLE OVER CANNABIS -- ONE CALLS FOR LEGALIZATION, HAS PUBLIC OPINION ON HIS SIDE
    The conservative Dutch government's attempted hard line against cannabis was shaken this week as one cabinet member went off the reservation by calling for the complete legalization of "soft drugs throughout Europe.
13. EUROPE: BRITISH HEROIN MAINTENANCE PROGRAM TO EXPAND
    A British program that provides free heroin to addicts is set to expand in June, the National Health Service's Treatment Agency announced last week.
14. INDIA: CRACKDOWN ON OPIUM GROWERS SPURS CONFUSION, PROTESTS IN KARNATAKA
    Farmers in the countryside surrounding the high-tech center of Bangalore have been growing opium for years, apparently oblivious to laws restricting the cultivation of poppies. That has changed this month -- and the farmers aren't happy.
15. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
16. EVENTS: MPP GALAS NEXT WEEK AND THE FOLLOWING
    Celebrity events coming up on two coasts will support the cause.
17. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #383 -- 4/22/05

1. EDITORIAL: NOW HOW DO YOU FEEL?
   Imagine you're to spend a year in jail for violating a drug law. How do you feel? Imagine it's 20 years. Now how do you feel?
2. FEATURE: HOUSE CONSERVATIVES PUSHING BILL TO "FIX" SENTENCING, INCREASE MANDATORY MINIMUMS, CREATE NEW DRUG CRIMES
   House conservatives led by Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner are moving ahead with a draconian anti-drug bill that would set harsh new mandatory minimum sentences for federal drug crimes as well as creating new drug crimes.
3. FEATURE: CANADA APPROVES SATIVEX -- NATURAL MARIJUANA-BASED PHARMACEUTICAL TO BE ON PHARMACY SHELVES BY SUMMER
   The Canadian government announced Tuesday that it has approved Sativex, a prescription pharmaceutical product derived from marijuana extracts, as a treatment for the relief of neuropathic pain in people with multiple sclerosis.
4. FEATURE: BRITAIN PASSES "TOUGH" NEW DRUG BILL -- TOUGHER SENTENCES, NEW CRIMES, MORE POLICE POWER
   A tough drugs and crime bill that some observers hoped was only a campaign tool for the Labor Party has passed both houses of parliament and is set to become the law of the land.
5. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET/PERRY FUND EVENT TO FEATURE US REP. JIM MCDERMOTT, JUNE 1 IN SEATTLE
   Please join DRCNet and the Perry Fund for the first west coast stop in our national tour raising money for student scholarships and awareness of a bad law.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   More jail guards gone bad, a Border Patrol agent pleads guilty, a former Puerto Rican cop gets busted in a Florida heroin dragnet, and New York City police take preemptive steps to stop corruption before it starts.
7. SENTENCING: SOUTH CAROLINA BILL TO EQUALIZE CRACK, POWDER COCAINE PENALTIES MOVING
   A bill that would eliminate the disparities in sentencing for offenses involving crack and powder cocaine is moving in the South Carolina legislature -- but the news is not all good.
8. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE SACRAMENTAL AYAHUASCA USE CASE
   In a case that pits the Religious Freedom Restoration Act against the Controlled Substances Act, the Supreme Court announced Monday it would hear the Justice Department's appeal of a series of federal court rulings that it cannot bar the US branch of a Brazilian religion from using the psychedelic Amazonian tea.
9. ON CAMPUS: UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDENTS PASS REFERENDUM CALLING FOR EQUALITY IN MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL PENALTIES
   Students at the University of Colorado in Boulder have voted overwhelmingly to signal their support of equalizing campus disciplinary penalties for marijuana and alcohol.
10. EUROPE: ENCOD OFFERS PEACE PIPE TO EUROPEAN UNION -- LITERALLY
    In a call to end drug prohibition and a move to dramatize civil society's exclusion from the EU's drug policy-making process, members of the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies presented a peace pipe to EU representatives at a public hearing Thursday.
11. ASIA: MALAYSIA CONSIDERING DRUG MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS?
    An exchange at the Malaysian Parliament last week suggested the Malay government may be willing to consider providing drugs to dependent drug users.
12. MEDIA SCAN:
    Debra Saunders on Student Drug Testing, Brown University SSDP Opens Drug Resource Center
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
14. SSDP T-SHIRT AND FLYER DESIGN CONTEST
    Students for Sensible Drug Policy is currently soliciting designs for new SSDP t-shirts and flyers, to be made available on the SSDP web site and used by youth and students nationwide.
15. ONLINE: AUDIO WEB CHAT WITH DR. ANDREW WEIL
    Log on with DPA later this month to chat online with the bestselling author.
16. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #382 -- 4/15/2005

1. EDITORIAL: A MORAL FOG
   The sentencing of a pain doctor for opiate prescriptions illustrates the corroded ethics of the system imprisoning him.
2. FEATURE: CHILL OVER PAIN MANAGEMENT DEEPENS AS LEADING SPECIALIST IS SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON
   The most closely watched in a growing procession of prosecutions of doctors involved in aggressive pain management with opioids ended Thursday in a suburban Washington, DC, federal courthouse.
3. FEATURE: NEW REFORM GROUP TARGETS COLORADO CAMPUSES WITH REFERENDUMS TO EQUALIZE MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL VIOLATION PENALTIES
   Colorado college campuses have garnered much unwelcome publicity in recent months because of alcohol-related incidents. A new organization is now seeking equalize campus penalties for alcohol and marijuana infractions so students don't choose the more dangerous substance to avoid being punished more severely.
4. FEATURE: PRISON RAPE: THE STORIES NEED TO BE TOLD
   Many corrections officials maintain that prisoner rape is a rare occurrence, but research shows otherwise. Drug offenders are among the most vulnerable prey for sexual violence behind bars.
5. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: ORGIES OF THE HEMP EATERS
   There is very little of the standard drug policy reform rhetoric in this compilation of cannabis culture -- but a reminder that there is indeed a world out there in which drug czar John Walters and the rest of his prohibitionist posse are basically irrelevant.
6. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Police officers in Pennsylvania and Texas are headed to prison for their misdeeds, while in other incidents this week cops, deputies, and even a fire department official are in trouble with the law.
7. HARM REDUCTION: SAN FRANCISCO ORDINANCE ALLOWING SYRINGE SALES WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION NOW IN EFFECT
   Legislation approved last year allowing California cities and counties to pass ordinances okaying the sale of syringes without a prescription is beginning to bear fruit.
8. METH MADNESS: ILLINOIS BILL TO HEIGHTEN METHAMPHETAMINE PENALTIES MOVING
   Democrats in the midwestern state have crafted legislation to ramp up penalties for methamphetamine offenses and create new meth-related offenses. It's on its way to becoming law.
9. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: SOUTH DAKOTA INITIATIVE GETTING UNDER WAY
   A newly formed group headed by a veteran South Dakota activist has taken the first official steps toward getting a medical marijuana initiative on the November 2006 ballot.
10. AFRICA: UGANDAN FARMERS CALL FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
    Farmers in Uganda's Busia district have responded to police raids on their marijuana crops by calling for legalization of the crop.
11. ASIA: THAILAND DRUG WAR, PART III
    After murdering some 2,500 people during the prior phases of its bloody drug war, the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Monday announced plans to initiate a third phase.
12. ASIA: POLICE IN HO CHI MINH CITY DETAIN 650 IN NIGHTCLUB DRUG SWEEP
    Following the lead of its neighbors in what has become the world's most repressive region in the war on drugs, Vietnamese police over the weekend rounded up more than 650 people in Saigon nightspots and forced them to undergo on-the-spot urine tests.
13. ASIA: SOUTH KOREA TO INSTITUTE TREATMENT FOR DRUG OFFENDERS
    The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare and the ruling Uri Party have agreed to allow courts to impose drug treatment when handing down suspended sentences for drug offenders.
14. ASIA: AFGHAN OPIUM ERADICATION CAMPAIGN OFF TO VIOLENT START
    What was supposed to have been a model for the Afghan government's new opium eradication program ended in violent confrontation Monday.
15. CONGRESS: HOW DID YOUR US REPRESENTATIVE VOTE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAST YEAR?
    By the time you read this, the Supreme Court may have already spoken on the constitutionality of medical marijuana prohibition. This would be a good time to look up whether or how your Representative in Congress voted on the issue last time.
16. ALERT: PLEASE HELP STUDENTS LOSING FINANCIAL AID FOR COLLEGE BECAUSE OF DRUG CONVICTIONS GET THEIR AID BACK
    Participate in DRCNet online action alerts asking Congress and two state Legislatures to undo Rep. Mark Souder's much-criticized law stripping college aid from students with drug convictions.
17. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
18. ONLINE: AUDIO WEB CHAT WITH DR. ANDREW WEIL
    Log on with DPA later this month to chat online with the bestselling author.
19. JOB LISTING: DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE
    Experienced individuals check out this DC job opportunity in the movement!
20. WEEKLY: THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #381 -- 4/8/05

1. MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILLS MOVING IN THE STATES
   Medical marijuana continues to be a hot issue in state legislatures this year.
2. HEMP LEGISLATION ON THE MOVE IN THE STATES
   Industrial hemp advocates and supporters have been busy this legislative season.
3. NORML 2005: ACTIVISTS MEET AND PLOT IN AMERICA'S MARIJUANA MECCA
   More than 500 marijuana activists gathered in San Francisco last weekend for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws annual conference.
4. PUSHING THE ENVELOPE IN OAKSTERDAM
   When city officials tightened the screws on Oakland's thriving medical marijuana neighborhood, it looked like Oaksterdam's fleeting glory days were already behind it. But nine months later, at least one former dispensary has taken the leap into non-medical sales to adults.
5. HOW DID YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS VOTE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAST YEAR?
   By the time you read this, the Supreme Court may have already spoken on the constitutionality of medical marijuana prohibition. This would be a good time to look up whether or how your Representative in Congress voted on the issue last time.
6. PLEASE HELP STUDENTS LOSING FINANCIAL AID FOR COLLEGE BECAUSE OF DRUG CONVICTIONS GET THEIR AID BACK
   Participate in DRCNet online action alerts asking Congress and two state Legislatures to undo Rep. Mark Souder's much-criticized law stripping college aid from students with drug convictions.
7. NEWSBRIEF: WITH PROHIBITION FAILING, CHINA CALLS FOR "PEOPLES' WAR" ON DRUGS
   With the number of both drug arrests and officially recognized "drug addicts" on the rise, Chinese authorities are responding with a call for more, better drug war.
8. NEWSBRIEF: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Sometimes we are hard-pressed to come up with material for this feature, but this week our cup runneth over with a veritable cornucopia of corruption.
9. NEWSBRIEF: SUPREME COURT LETS STAND RULING ALLOWING DRUG DOG SEARCHES OUTSIDE PEOPLE'S HOMES
   The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a Houston case in which police used a drug dog to sniff outside a man's garage, the second ruling in recent months ratifying expanded police powers at the expense of the fourth amendment.
10. NEWSBRIEF: STATE COURTS IN INDIANA, OREGON RESTRICT POLICE GARBAGE SEARCHES
    While the US Supreme Court has repeatedly held that police do not need a search warrant to search people's trash once it has been placed outside for collection, two recent rulings in state courts will place limits on police in Indiana and Oregon.
11. NEWSBRIEF: IOWA LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS CRITICIZES DRUG POLICY, CALLS FOR SENTENCING REFORM
    After an 18-month study of prison and sentencing policy in Iowa, that state's chapter of the nonpartisan national civic organization has called for serious sentencing reform.
12. NEWSBRIEF: NORML ISSUES SOBERING REPORT ON PROHIBITIONIST "DRUGGED DRIVING" OFFENSIVE
    A report from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws provides a sobering analysis on an effort crafted by drug war bureaucrats and drug testing entrepreneurs to criminalize drug users who drive -- even if they're not under the influence. The laws are already on the books in 11 states.
13. MEDIA SCAN
    American Enterprise Institute on US Drug Policy, New York Times on Hurwitz Case, Christopher Hallam on Afghanistan, NYPD Narcotics Against Legalization
14. THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
15. THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
    Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

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Issue #380 -- 3/25/05

1. EDITORIAL: RISE OR FALL
   Every now and then a candid comment by a public official reveals the sheer incoherence of the government's anti-drug strategy. The latest such remark came from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, on the topic of opium in Afghanistan.
2. REEFER REVERSAL? BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO RECONSIDER CANNABIS RECLASSIFICATION
   In the midst of a parliamentary election campaign where drugs have become a key issue, the Labor government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair moved last weekend to reconsider its reclassification of cannabis.
3. MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILLS FAIL IN ILLINOIS, NEW MEXICO
   Drug reformers and patient advocates started 2005 with high hopes of seeing more states jump on the medical marijuana bandwagon. They will now have to look somewhere beside Illinois and New Mexico to gain a legislative victory this year.
4. SPECIAL TO DRCNET: STEROIDS, SLUGGERS, AND THE WAR ON DRUGS
   University of Texas drugs and sports expert John Hoberman comments on last week's US congressional hearings on steroids in baseball.
5. DRCNET BOOK REVIEW: SPORTS, SEX, ETERNAL YOUTH: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TESTOSTERONE
   From the bedroom to the boardroom, from Olympic stadiums to the neighborhood YMCA, and in countless unseen pockets of everyday life, it is all about performance. John Hoberman's "Testosterone Dreams: Rejuvenation, Aphrodisia, Doping" is a powerful rumination on the history and meaning of the quest for athletic excellence and eternal youth.
6. DRCNET LETTER TO JUDGE WEXLER ON UPCOMING HURWITZ SENTENCING HEARING
   David Borden urges the Hurwitz case judge to release Dr. Hurwitz because of jurors' fundamental misconceptions about the case as revealed in quotes given by their foreman to the Washington Post.
7. PLEASE HELP STUDENTS LOSING FINANCIAL AID FOR COLLEGE BECAUSE OF DRUG CONVICTIONS GET THEIR AID BACK
   Participate in DRCNet online action alerts asking Congress and two state Legislatures to undo Rep. Mark Souder's much-criticized law stripping college aid from students with drug convictions.
8. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
   Another mixed bag this week, with a crooked 911 dispatcher, another former prosecutor gone downhill, and a group of notorious Oakland police facing justice -- again.
9. CORRUPT COPS STORIES ON THE AIR
   DRCNet's "This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories" series is now on the air, thanks to the Cultural Baggage Drug Truth Network.
10. EVENTS AND CONFERENCES COMING UP FOR DRUG REFORMERS -- COME OUT AND BE A PART OF IT
    Events and conferences are coming up around the country -- come out and get to know the people in the movement!
11. NEWSBRIEF: DC JUDGE CLEARED IN JAIL DEATH OF PARALYZED MARIJUANA USER
    A ten-day sentence for marijuana possession turned into a death sentence for Jonathan Magbie when the DC Jail and a hospital failed to provide the quadriplegic with proper medical care. The judge who sent him to his death has now been cleared of misconduct by a judicial commission.
12. NEWSBRIEF: MICHIGAN NIGHTCLUB RAVE RAID NETS 118, MANY CHARGED ONLY WITH FREQUENTING A "DRUG HOUSE"
    Dozens of Michigan police raided a Flint nightspot late Saturday night, arresting 118 club goers, mostly for "frequenting a drug house." The mass arrests of apparently innocent people parallels a similar 2003 bust in Wisconsin.
13. NEWSBRIEF: FROM EXILE, KUBBY CHALLENGES SEARCH WARRANT IN CASE THAT CAUSED HIM TO FLEE UNITED STATES
    Activist Steve Kubby fled California in 2001 to avoid a virtual death sentence through denial of access to medical marijuana. Now Kubby is alleging fraud by Placer County officials in a bid to overturn his conviction.
14. NEWSBRIEF: BRITAIN'S TOP TV COP SAYS LEGALIZE HEROIN
    While British politicians are busy wringing their hands over marijuana as parliamentary elections loom, actor Alex Norton of police drama "Taggart" fame has other drugs on his mind.
15. NEWSBRIEF: MARIJUANA CROPS DEFENDED IN FIJI SENATE HEARING
    A Fijian senate ad-hoc committee on drugs and vice holding a public hearing on marijuana growing in the Navosa region got an earful from local residents.
16. NEWSBRIEF: AFGHAN ANTI-OPIUM DRIVE CAUSES PRICES TO RISE, MAKES NEW PLANTING MORE ATTRACTIVE, UN HEAD ANNAN SAYS
    The effort to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan, strongly backed by the United States and the United Nations, is threatened by its own success, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.
17. NEWSBRIEF: AT US BEHEST, PAKISTAN CLERICS VOW JIHAD AGAINST DRUGS
    Last month DEA administrator Karen Tandy urged Pakistani Muslim religious scholars to issue a religious decree, or jihad, against drugs. At a meeting last weekend, some of them took her up on it.
18. MEDIA SCAN
    Media Scan: Becker-Posner Blog, Neal Peirce, URI on HEA, Tulia, Loretta Nall, Baker Institute on Needle Exchange, New Jersey Network on Medical Marijuana, Whosarat.com
19. THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
    Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years pas